The Truth
by Synfish
Summary: The story of Azula after The Search. Defeated by her brother once more, Azula flees into the forest outside Hira'a. Her enemies could be close behind... She will not be imprisoned again... Be sure to read 'The Search' before beginning this story. Azula-centric. Post-Search.
1. Chapter One - Running Away

**Chapter One**

**Running Away**

She ran as fast as she could, as far as she could. She had to get away, deep into the woods and darkness where he would not find her, where _they_ would not find her. She could not let them find her, not the Avatar and his friends; not that idiot snow peasant and his _stupid _sister._ Not _Zuko, _not _mother.

_ ... If I really am your mother..._

She closed her eyes holding back her tears. _Ugh! _And ran into a tree_._

She pushed off of it and kept running. The forest was growing thicker with every step. She had to keep moving. If they caught her, they would send her back the institution, or worse.

_... I've imagined all this..._

_ ... The throne is my destiny..._

_ ... The rest of our lives..._

_ How could she forget?_

Her vision blurred. She was constantly squinting, wiping; fighting back the tears. It was hard enough sprinting in the darkness, downhill, past trees and limbs and roots she could not see, stumbling, swatting, and leaping, all slowing her down.

_... If I really am your mother..._

_ Was it really her?_

Past the trees she ran, feeling her way through the dark.

_... A new daughter..._

_ ... I've imagined all this..._

_ ... I didn't love you enough..._

"Ah!"

A low lying branch and its leaves whacked her in the face. She tore away from it in anger and kept running. They could be close behind.

_... The throne is my destiny..._

_ ... No matter what..._

_ ... I can help you..._

She changed course abruptly and kicked off in the new direction. Maybe it would throw them off. She was quickly growing tired. She wiped her eyes, trying to stem the flow of tears.

_... The throne is my destiny..._

_ ... If I really am your mother..._

_ ... I've imagined all this..._

The chilling fear of getting lost was growing in her chest with every step farther into this forsaken valley. What of the unknown dangers of this forest that she was running into? What other potentially dangerous spirits might she come across, alone and vulnerable in the dark? She didn't know where she was going. It hardly mattered now. They just couldn't find her.

_... If I am your mother..._

Her stomach tensed.

_... One fact never changes..._

Her breath was becoming shaky and shallow.

_... The throne is my destiny..._

_ ... I've imagined all this..._

Her legs were growing heavy, her paced slowed.

_... I've imagined all this..._

_... You need me..._

_ ... You're still my sister..._

_ ... The throne is my destiny..._

Her strength was fading.

Suddenly a dim light filled the forest, its source unknown. She was frightened. _Can they see me!? Is this a trick!? _She halted; afraid the danger could be coming from all around. She scanned the trees and shadows for any signs of followers, listening for the calls and shouts of her enemies above the noises of her panting and beating heart.

"Do you wish to remember, human?" A powerful voice sounded.

_ What!? _She looked up, around.

"Hold still…"

She flinched, ducked her head and ran. _Is it a spirit!? Where!?_ She weaved around the trees to evade whatever danger might be trying to reach her. The rush of survival drowned out her feelings and made her focus; more trees ahead, a gradual slope downwards, round objects ahead, rocks, maybe. _Cover!_ She headed straight for them and hid behind the first large boulder.

The light faded. Nothing approached her. The forest returned to darkness.

She stood behind the boulder, back pressed firm against it. "I'm so out of shape," she panted, bending over and resting on her knees. _What was that voice?_ _Please let it not be in my head. Let it be real, let it be real!_

She waited, exhausted, her heart thumping, sweat dripping from her face. She listened, waiting for Zuko and her enemies, for a spirit to attack her, something, but nothing came. She slammed the soft part of her fist against the rock.

_That wasn't who was in my visions. It was nothing like her. She was weak and forgetful, and kind..._

She remembered "Noriko", scared, yet concerned for her, gently stroking her cheek and looking at her with sad eyes. That was supposed to have been her mother, with a _new face_, with a _new daughter_, her mother who was supposed to have been conspiring against her and tormenting her mind! _How could it possibly have been her? _Her mind was racing. _How could she not remember me_!? She placed her hands on her temples.

_ What if it was just a ruse, another lie to throw me off? That means mother's still out there, haunting me somehow, but that spirit... it knew her, it showed her real face, and Zuko protected her! Did she really not remember me? Did I really make it all up? _

_ "… _No," She shut her eyes.

_You were wrong._

She saw Zuko standing over her, the Fire Lord's crown upon his head.

_ ... I can help you..._

_... I've imagined all this..._

She gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on the rock as the tears began to seep out. She wanted to kick and yell and lash out, but she knew better than to give herself away. It hurt to silence herself. Her body was growing tired from the effort.

_... If I really am your mother..._

_ ... The throne is my destiny..._

_ ... I've imagined all this..._

Her blood burned with embarrassment and shame; the way they all looked at her, another miserable defeat. She let out a deep, shuddering sigh, feeling the wetness of several tears stream down her cheeks. She tried lifting a leg to keep going, but it felt like lead.

"I can't run anymore," she said, exhausted. She looked over her shoulder. _Maybe I've lost them. _She again listened for any followers, holding her breath to silence her panting, and still heard didn't mean they weren't out there. She saw ahead the outlines of the other large boulders in the glow of the moonlight. Maybe she could hide among them. She inched her way forward through the dark, stepping lightly and carefully. She felt the next rock in front of her; it was waist-high, round, and coarse. She felt another, and another. She had come across a field of them.

_ ... If I really am your mother..._

She walked silently past the boulders.

_ ... A new daughter..._

She put a hand on one.

_ ... I've imagined all this..._

_ ... The throne is my destiny..._

Its surface was cold.

_... Even when you're strong... you're weak..._

The ground around it seemed dry.

_... I can help you..._

_ ... Even when you're strong... you're weak..._

She took one last blurred look around, still feeling exposed and vulnerable, few trees or thicket around to hide her.

_ … You're weak…_

She lowered herself to the ground,

_ ... You're weak..._

Crossed her legs and leaned back against the boulder,

_ ... I've imagined all this..._

Covered her face with her hands,

_ ...__** You're weak**__!_

And finally let herself cry.

_They probably think I'm a nutcase! _She sobbed into her hands. _Did she really lose her memory!? Oh, like it matters; Zuko would've just beaten me anyway! I stood no chance against him… _

With no options left against a frighteningly resolute Zuko, her back against the wall and nowhere to go, faced with the possibility that her mind was less than what she thought it was, and the people around her no doubt thinking the same, how could it possibly have ended well for her?

The letter had been her protection. What luck that the right to rule could still have been hers simply because it did not belong Zuko! She was the one on the ground, though, so she used the one thing that always worked on her gullible brother: logic. _Convince_ Zuko that it was in both their best interests for him to willingly abdicate the throne to her, and it would have been! He was the one, after all, who went on and on and one about his want for family, and her wellbeing and 'dignity'. She would get her old life back and he would get the family he always wanted. It wouldn't have mattered if she was wrong about her mother, or was crazy; she would have been Fire Lord.

But Zuko defied logic that day, declaring that he would not give up the throne and that he never had any intention of it. It was Zuko who, in the end, had fooled her.

It was in that moment, with insanity tapping her on the shoulder, when she was faced with capture by her enemies who probably believed she belonged to be in that institution, never to leave, that the need to escape consumed her.

"_For her own good,"_ Zuko would have said, just like the first time when she was carted off to the island. Her body shuddered. She would _never_ accept that fate again, never. Blinded by every fear, every bad memory, nothing else mattered.

So she dropped the incriminating letter in the hope that Zuko he would go for it and, in that moment of delay, give her the few seconds she needed to escape his grasp.

_"I can help you!"_ He called out to her as she ran. _"I want to help you!" _He probably did want to help her, but she knew what that really meant.

_Of course he would think that! _Azula mocked her brother in a sing-song voice._ 'Poor little sister, so insane and so useless! You really are out of your mind, aren't you? Pitiful, embarrassing thing, you're no longer a threat to me and now I can feel bad for you!'_ She ground her teeth. "They probably think they're better than me." Hot burning tears fell. "Just like last time."

Then there was her mother.

_ Oh right! That went completely nowhere! So, what, am I being haunted or not!? Is she working against me or not!?_

She had gotten no answers, no explanation, nothing to confirm that she was not crazy, but instead that she was!

_Why did she have another family, why did she have no idea who I was? _More confusion, more questions, never a chance to have any of them answered, all because of Zuko.

"Zuko," his voice rolled off her tongue like venom. _I bet he thinks this is all just fine, her having another family, another husband, another child!? _What would all of this mean for the Royal Family? _But it isn't right; none of this is! _She kicked her dug her heels into the ground. It was agony staying silent, her sobs coming out as pitiful whimpers. She grated her teeth and clenched her fists on the sides of her head. Would her tears ever end? Would they ever find her?

** "**None of this is right. None of this was supposed to happen."

And so here she was, a princess of the Fire Nation, sitting on the ground in some backwater forest in the middle of the night_, _alone andmiserable, a failure, cryingher eyes out, with no answers to her life's terrible turn of events, in an even worse position than before.

She sniffled and wiped her eyes.

Would Zuko make her a fugitive? Would he slander her name once more? Should she have kept the letter?

_What difference would it have made? Even if Zuko is illegitimate, I already lost one Agni Kai, spent one year in a mental institution, tried to kill my mother to make 'the voices my head' go away… Nobody would have believed me, nobody believed me when I told them I was actually the one who won the Agni Kai, that it was the snow peasant who interfered on Zuko's behalf, that it was a coup and nothing more. Everyone at the institution seemed perfectly fine having Zuko as their Fire Lord… and not me._

All of this felt so familiar; this was just like how it had been when she lost the first time; defeated, angry, humiliated, confused, wondering why. That letter brought her hope that she would never feel this way again, but here she was, experiencing it all over. Something felt different this time, though; these weren't new feelings. It was, as if, in some way, she had become used to this.

"Used to this…"

Zuko was the one who always failed. She was failing now. She felt woozy.

_What am I supposed to do? _She tried to get a hold of herself. _Father is in prison, Zuko is the Fire Lord, and the Avatar is on his side. What do I do, where am I supposed to go?_

She asked those same questions before. There were no answers then and there were no answers now. She had expected people to reject Zuko and the Avatar and to turn to her, but as the weeks passed and she found herself becoming integrated into that horrible place, nobody came to express their support, not even a whisper. Nobody helped her then, nobody would help her now.

No, that last part wasn't quite true; her father had tried to help her, a few days ago, when the circumstances had been right, almost out of luck. She had failed that opportunity. She had failed her father, failed her country, herself, again.

_Failed…_

There probably wouldn't be any more chances either.

She sat there in the dark for a long time, head in her hands, lamenting the past year, the last few days, the future she had lost, while still keeping an ear out for anyone, or anything that might be searching for her. Her body eventually grew too tired for crying. She began to feel more aware of the oppressive darkness and silence around her. What _was_ she going to do now, just sit here until dawn, feeling sorry and hoping she wouldn't be found? There wasn't anything else she could do tonight. Would she be spending the night in the forest? What if they found her while she slept?

Suddenly the next few hours became critical.

_Okay, pull yourself together, Azula, you have to think now. _She took a deep breath and wiped away the lingering wetness from her eyes. _Things are worse for you than even before and they're going to get worse if you don't figure things out now. _She sat up, brushed away the hair that had fallen in front of her face and opened her eyes.

The tree tops were bright in the moonlight—a clear night. The boulders were black objects around her, like dark voids. She hid well among them. Feeling the ground with her hands confirmed it was dry dirt, instead some gross forest junk she would never put her head on. If she was going to be spending the night in the forest, then it was going to be here. It clearly wasn't safe to bear out here in the woods—she listened carefully for the sound of wolves, or tigers—but she had no choice; she would rather face whatever creatures or spirits existed here than have Zuko and the Avatar find her.

And what if they did find her?

She grew nervous. Hopefully they wouldn't, but if they did, she would fight them to the death; that would be the respectable way to go, not like her father, trap in a cell stripped of his bending. How was that even possible? The Avatar is clearly stronger than anyone believed. She would never let that happen to her.

So she would make it to the next day… then what?

It was all a blur. She had no idea what the future held and now wasn't going to be the time she'd figure that out, tired, miserable, and distracted. _If I have a future._ She just had to make it through the night_. _

Spent from running, drained from stress, her body was heavy with exhaustion. She sighed and leaned back against the rock, finding hardly any comfort against its hardness. Her gaze drifted upwards to the moonlight in the canopy.

"What am I supposed to do?" As if there was something in the universe that would listen.

Nothing was how it was supposed to be. She wasn't even sure if she could trust her own judgment anymore. What if-.

She stopped herself. _Tomorrow... I'll figure it out tomorrow._

She stayed awake long enough to watch the moonlight progress through the tree tops, waiting for them to find her.


	2. Chapter Two - A New Day

**Chapter Two**

**A New Day**

**Author's note: Thank you for returning! Your readership is appreciated. I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

She awoke with a shiver and one side of her face in the dirt. It was light out. She quickly sat up and looked around; trees, the ground around her, what looked like the giant boulders from last night, her hands and legs... were free. Listening, the only sounds were of the chirping of birds and, peering closely through the dim morning light, there did not seem to be anything else around. Feeling the rest of her body confirmed that nothing had gnawed on her while she slept. She let out a deep, relaxing sigh. She had made it through the night.

She reached out and yawned, stretching her cold and stiff body, feeling like she had slept on the… of course. She brushed the dirt off her face with the back of her hand and rubbed her eyes. It must have been very early; there wasn't much light, her eyes were itchy with drowsiness, and she shivered; it was cold. She crossed legs and tucked in her arms. A fine mist filled the air that penetrated the light fabric of her clothes.

"Well, tomorrow has arrived,"she said to herself._ 'Time to figure out what you're going to do. They'll be looking for you today; you're going to need a plan. _She scoffed at her own thoughts._ A 'plan', I already had one of those. It failed, miserably…_

As disastrous as things had been, wallowing in grief wasn't going to help her escape Zuko and the Avatar. Once the forest became lit, it was going to become a lot harder to hide.

_Sigh. _She closed her eyes, recalling yesterday's events. "All of this really has happened, hasn't it?" It felt like she was living in a bad dream. She had fought Zuko and lost. She had been handed a way to redeem on a silver platter and still she was hopeless. The fierceness in her brother's eyes the night before, the uselessness of _all_ of her attacks, her inability to land a single blow…

_… Oh for crying out loud, stop moving…!_

_ … I know how to deal with your lightning…_

It all didn't feel real. "Has Zuko really become a better Firebender than me?"

_ Yes, he is._

She was startled. Did she really just think that so easily? It was undeniable, even her lightning didn't matter anymore. She took a deep, shuddering breath. She had always been better than him, always.

_Stop thinking about yesterday,_ she told herself._ It's not helping._

She continued shivering in the cold.

_Zuko has the Avatar on his side; what can I possibly do against that!? I have no support, not from the generals, the nobles. No one even freed Father from prison. Why!? It's not just his bending he has…_

_"I have no doubt, Princess, that one day you will be a great leader of the Fire Nation..."_

_A leader, _she was filled with sorrow. _That's was what I was supposed to have been, a leader of the Fire Nation, that had won the war and whose people were proud of it, a Fire Nation that would share its wealth with the world and knew me as the only one who could lead the way. _It was as if a dark cloud passed over her. _That Fire Nation is gone._

Her country felt unfamiliar now, hostile. It was ruled by an _illegitimate_ Fire Lord and had given up all of its dreams of glory. One-hundred years, just like that, gone because of Zuko, but… it wasn't just Zuko, was it? It was everyone else, the soldiers, the generals, the people, who had gone along with Zuko, left her in the institution, decided to live in fear of the Avatar.

... _Mommy...!_

_ ... If I really am your mother..._

Even her mother didn't want her. Learning that was supposed to have been a good thing for her, but now it was just another example of what was becoming clear: this wasn't the Fire Nation she was proud of growing up, the country she hoped to inherit one day (and never would now). Her country had replaced her, just like her mother.

_Ugh, stop thinking like this, it's getting you nowhere! _ She reprimanded, stopping from spiraling away into the dark thoughts that were becoming disturbing. _You're the Princess; you're not supposed to be thinking like this, these people belong to you! You shouldn't be giving up on them out of revenge!_

What loyalty should she still have, though? This wasn't the Fire Nation she could play a role in anymore, or the one she wanted. It was weak and afraid. Outside this forest, there was nothing for her to return to. She bowed her head in gloom. What would escaping Zuko even do for her…?

_Keep you free._

She sat straight. "I'm free." The words rolled off her tongue like honey.

A week ago she had been in the institution, wondering if that was where she was going to be for the rest of her life. Now there was a chance it wouldn't have to be, a chance she could live her life with _dignity_ and not as a prisoner. She could escape that fate today and forever. Her insides glowed, like a bright new day was starting.

She could never let people know who she was, though. She would have to stay away from Zuko for the rest of her life, and give up any hope of having her old life back. She wrestled with what this would mean; would she be an outcast, a lost person wandering the land? She couldn't even imagine the last part! Where would she live, _how_ would she live? Her future was cloudy like the morning mist around her. Her stomach twisted from the uncertainty. At least she wouldn't have to be Zuko's prisoner; there clearly wasn't anything else she could be; the letter was out of her hands. It was probably burnt to ashes by now.

She may never find out if her mother truly had been behind her failures, or if her visions were the symptoms of a sick mind, or something else. She would have to give up ever believing she would ever have an answer, ever be able to set things right. She would have to give up-

She paused; she had heard these words before:

... _This futile quest._

"It's just a coincidence," recalling her vision's warning. "There's no way I could have known."

The future was bleak, but she had discovered the smallest ray of hope that things could make things better. That, in a small way, felt like a victory against Zuko.

_Maybe he isn't getting such a good deal after all, _she mused, b_eing the illegitimate ruler of a cowardly nation. Heh, maybe they'll find out one day and remove him._ She smirked, the fantasy bringing her joy. _Maybe I'll get another chance one day, and then I'll show them all!_

She was really going to do it: abandon the world and hide, at least for a while, maybe forever. A year ago she had fought to be the Fire Nation's leader, not to run away from it. The only reason she was coming to this decision was _because _she was defeated_._ She knew she wouldn't be feeling this way about her country had things simply gone her way. If only she had just won that Agni Kai; none of this would ever have happened, and so she was back to the original question:

What _was_ she going to do?

She opened her eyes, shocked to find that it had become _much_ brighter out; rays of sunlight streamed down from the canopy through the fog. _How did it become so light out? _She rubbed her eyes, at last waking up. _Let's see, there were mountains in the distance outside of Hira'a. The sun could have been behind them... Oh no… _That meant it was much later than she originally thought. _Gasp! They could be on their way!_

She went to stand, but stopped herself, not wanting to risk being while she still had the advantage of remaining hidden. She didn't have a plan either.

_I can't go back to Hira'a, that's for certain, _she began to think._ They're probably expecting me to go back there anyway to 'finish the job.' _She shuddered, imagining the image her enemies probably had of her. _I won't fall into that trap. _She looked over her shoulder and tried peering around the rock._ Besides, _she turned back around not seeing anything._ I never want to see her again. I can't stay in this forest, though. I can hide here until they stop looking for me. How long could that take, a few days, a week? I know people can last weeks without eating, but water—_her mouth was dry and the heat of the sun was not far away_—I don't have that long._

The possibility of perishing out here entered her mind.

_ No, _she shook the thought away._ I won't die here, but I can't just let myself grow weak either; I'll stand no chance against them. Ugh! _She grasped her head and thought hard. _"What do I do?" _Panic was building as the minutes passed and nothing came to her. This was so unlike anything she had ever done. In the Earth Kingdom, she at least had had the option of finding the Fire Nation military somewhere if things went wrong. Now she had to assume that the military _wouldn't_ be on her side and thatnobody would help her. Fugitive signs of her face could be plastered everywhere, like she had done to Zuko.

"Wait a minute," she whispered. _Zuko made it through the colonies as a fugitive, the whole Earth Kingdom, and he has a stupidly obvious scar on his face, he even made it to their capital! I don't have a scar like him. Maybe I can make it too… Again, though, where will I go, what will I do?_

She was afraid, truly afraid to wander off into these unknown wilds with all the dangers lurking within, some she had already seen and certainly many more she had not. She never had felt so weary of death before. Dying on the battlefield, she would have been remembered, but out here, on the run as a fugitive, a disgrace, 'presumed dead', really would mean the end of her. No legacy would live on; no one would pay respects to her body, her accomplishments. Everything she wanted to have been, could have been, would die with her…

_No! _She cleared away the dark thoughts. _I won't die here. I won't let Zuko have the final act. I'm still in this fight; I'm not completely beaten yet…_

She let out a deep sigh. She didn't like it, but she knew what she had to do.

_I have to get to another town, a village, some place I can hide. No matter how far, I have to make it; I have to journey through this forest._ She looked up the brightening canopy, already beginning to feel a little of the sun's needed to have access to water. Rain could be too far away to rely on. There were those spirit ponds, but she reeled at the thought of what that water could do to her.

_I could find a creek somewhere, by those mountains probably. No, that's too far away. I don't even know where I'm going. Where would another town be anyway? Think, mountains, forest, 'Forgetful Valley'. Valley... valley… I'm in a valley... Valleys are carved by rivers._

She had run downhill last night.

_I can find the river in this valley and follow it to the next town! Yes, that makes sense; all Fire Nation towns are close to water, and if not, then at least I'll come to the ocean; there's bound to be villages there. It shouldn't be that far; we didn't fly over land very far before coming to Hira'a. There are bound to be villages along the way. _She felt the anticipation, the tingling excitement of a new plan. She would leave this place and trek in whatever direction would take her to the center of the valley, where the hoped-for river would lie. It might be a long journey and it could be dangerous, but at least she would have water and direction to follow, instead of wandering lost in the unknown.

There were other dangers to contend with not as simple as giant wolf spirits or lake monsters: how could she fight disease, poisonous snakes, or a tiger stalking her in the dark? She had fire and lightning, but she could not kill what she could not see. She imagined it: a tiger stalking her in the shadows, silent, herself completely unaware, a single claw reaching out at her through the darkness, swiping across her back as the weight of the animal pressed down onto her…

She shuddered. She recalled the stuffed heads of different Fire Nation animals, vicious and large, with blazing white fangs and claws bigger than her hands, lining the halls of a museum. Those animals had to live somewhere. She wasn't a large person either; they might see her as easy prey.

She felt queasy from building fear. "This is such a bad idea, but I have no other option."

So that was the long awaited answer to what her future would hold, however long it would last: instead of being a prisoner in the institution wondering it that was where her life was going to end, she was going to be a prisoner of this forest wondering if _this_ was where her life would end. At least this time, there was hope of finding refuge in the end.

What of the problem of her mother, or the visions? They could still lead her mind astray.

_I'm sure anybody would lose their mind at that place, _she half-joked, the time away will actually make them go away. _If that woman really was mother, then she couldn't be the one in my visions; it looked nothing like her. If there something out there corrupting my mind, then don't listen to it, not a single word; that could be its plan, but… if I am 'not well'… _She sighed, feeling returning shame. _Then just focus on what you know is real. _

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. _It's time to go._

She brought herself up to stand, "Oww!" and moaned, an incredible soreness emanating from her legs. It had been over a year since she had run like yesterday.

Slowly, she peaked above the boulder. She saw no movement in the distance, save for the floating specks of dust drifting in the light. Neither did she hear anything. With one last sweeping look around, she climbed atop the boulder.

There was no use trying to see beyond the densely packed trees; all she needed was to make out the gradual slope of the ground that she had felt last night… There it was, behind her. The field of boulders also went on for an unknowable distance longer. It'd be a challenge passing through, but she could duck behind any boulder in an instant; the safety was worth it. At least she would be getting away from Hira'a with this plan, but what if they did catch up to her?

"I'll fight to the death." That was all there was to it.

She hopped down from the boulder, landing as softly and quietly as possible on her feet, the soreness sending a shock through her legs. She stood up, a little wobbly, and hesitated. She stared into the shadowed forest ahead.

"This isn't smart, Azula. There's no reason this will work."

Then again, there hadn't been a reason for everything else that had happened. Hopefully she would be lucky.

With a final deep breath, she started on her way.

Progress was slow. The air was hot and sticky with humidity now that the sun was high in the sky. Getting through the treeless boulder field had been easy; trudging through the thick jungle-like forest that now confronted her was a nightmare. So much of her time was wasted merely avoiding suspicious bushes that might be poisonous to the touch, and frantically swatting down scary looking spiders that fell on her from the leaves. She was on guard the entire time, looking around, fists at the ready, but it was the bugs that were the worst. They came in swarms she could not believe, buzzing around every part of her face, her ears, her eyes, _in her nose_, and with every furious swat they filled back in like water. Eventually she became resigned to them.

"How fast does a person walk?" she wondered aloud, the sound of a voice helping ease the tedium, "Two, three miles an hour? I know that's what the military uses." She was definitely moving slower than a soldier on an open road, though. By sun down, maybe, _hopefully_, she would have walked twelve miles. Judging by the sun, it was probably late-morning.

"What will I do when night comes? I can't climb these trees, and I am _not_ sleeping on the ground." The leaf litter was soft and loamy beneath her feet. She made a sound of disgust and shuddered at the thought all the creatures that were just waiting to crawl on her. "It's just one problem after another."

Every passing tree, every rock and vine began to look the same. She had not yet heard or seen other animals. Maybe they were afraid of her, as they should be_._ It was feeling too hot to talk. Her mind began to wonder.

_"Princess!"_

_ She turned to see who called her name._

_ The war meeting was over and most of the generals were filing out. Zuko had walked away rather quickly for some reason. Probably upset that his sister had upstaged him in front of everybody again. Oh, well._

_ "General Shita," Azula said, a little surprised as the aging general approached her._

_ "Greetings, Princess," he stopped two paces in front of her and performed the formal greeting with perfect smoothness. "I wanted to speak with you before you left." He lifted from his bow. "Do you have a moment?"_

_ She knew of this man, but not well. He was the leader of the Colonial military. His hair was grey and he looked a little bit younger than the oldest ones, but still old. She supposed she could spare some time to find out more about him. She meant to go straight to bed in order to get rest for tomorrow, but the meeting had put her in a good mood; her father had taken very well to her plan. "Yes, I have some time," she said pleasantly. "But don't take too long," she lightly warned._

_ "Thank you, Princess," he bowed again. "First, I want to express my personal gratitude to you for your role in the defense of the capitol tomorrow." She refrained from rolling her eyes, so used to the pleasantries. "If not for you, Princess, tomorrow may have been a disaster."_

_ But it always felt good. "Thank you, General," she replied. "How lucky I was to have been in the right place at the right time."_

_ "Lucky," he rubbed his chin, "Perhaps. There is one thing about your plans tomorrow that concerns me…"_

_ The General listened intently as she explained her relationship with the Dai Lee and how they came to be under her control. He had never heard of them before and he did not understand how they could be trusted. It was a reasonable concern, but she would have told him to take her word for it if his questioning went on too long. Fortunately, he became convinced._

_ "Now I am even more confident that their invasion will fail, if they even still try."_

_ "Oh, they will definitely try, General."_

_ "There is something else I wanted to talk you about." He beckoned down the corridor. "Do you mind if we walk?"_

_ What was this about? "Not at all." They began walking down the corridor._

_ As they grew distant from the others, General Shita continued speaking. "You did very well during the meeting, Princess. Your insights were valuable and your composure was excellent"_

_ "Thank you." That was a strange comment. "It wasn't my first."_

_ "No, but your presence has become markedly stronger." His hands were folded behind his back and his gaze was directed thoughtfully towards the floor._

_ "I say these things, Princess, because I have been around for a very long time. Already at your age you have achieved a level of military greatness few others in history can match. Your actions, like nobody else, have contributed directly to the end of this war." They passed the portrait of her father._

_ "I remember when I first heard news of your victory in the Earth Kingdom," he went on. "The telegram: 'Ba Sing Se under Fire Nation control, Avatar dead'. I couldn't believe it, both of the Fire Nation's greatest threats vanquished in a single night, by one person. Not only that, but you brought back word of an invasion that, if successful, might be the act of vengeance needed for our enemies to reunite against us. You may have saved your father's life tomorrow," he said seriously, looking at her._

_ "Come now, General, don't be so grim."_

_ "You mentioned luck being behind these successes." He shook his head. "I don't think so. What I see are just the first achievements of an upcoming leader." They walked past the portrait of Fire Lord Sozin. General Shita's monologue continued._

_ "The war will soon be over, Princess, and then you will find that the opportunities for greatness will be very different from what you have grown up with during the war. If the Fire Nation is going to be successful in spreading its influence across the world, its leaders need to excel in peace as they did in war." They came upon her great-great grandfather, the Fire Lord who had lead the country during a period of great wealth and enlightenment, the era that inspired her grandfather to do the same with the rest of the world. "I and many others, however, have spent our lifetimes in combat, leading armies and soldiers on the battlefield, destroying cities and lives, instead of building them. But you, Princess," he turned toward her, stopping in front of the portrait, "Are still young. You are in the perfect position to become one of those leaders. If the last few months are any indication, and I believe they are, it is that success for you leads to even greater success for the Fire Nation. What I wanted to speak to you about, Princess, is your future."_

_ "My 'future?'" In typical upper echelon fashion, he was being longwinded vague. He looked her squarely in the eyes. She returned the gaze._

_ "What you will do to remain successful after this war ends." There was a brief pause between them. "I have no doubt, Princess, that you will be a great leader of the Fire Nation, perhaps one of the greatest, if you turn your skills towards the peacetime activities of a post-war world." The General paused again for a moment. "The plan you proposed to your father tonight; it is crude, but effective."_

_ The switch of topic was jarring. "'Crude?'" she question._

_ "Yes," he said. "It is simple and wantonly destructive, the clearest use of the advantages that the comet will bring." She wasn't sure if he was being critical. "It is the most appropriate decision given the circumstances and I believe that reveals something important about you."_

_ "And that is...?"_

_ "That you are flexible." He motioned with his hand. "You have the finesse and calm needed to take over a city with scarcely a drop of blood being spilled and the raw power to destroy your enemies when necessary."_

_ She was quite intrigued; she had never heard talk like this before. It wasn't like the usual praise either. Azula smiled. "I'm flattered you think so highly of me, General," she said nicely, although feeling that this was all somewhat irrelevant. "I haven't quite thought of things this way. There is still a war to be fought, though; don't you feel that it might be a little too early for me to be thinking about what will happen after it ends?"_

_ "Not at all, Princess," he stood firm. "To the contrary, I believe you need to be ready as soon as possible, so you can make the greatest contribution when that time comes. When the World is under Fire Nation control, it will be like one great colony. In my view, Princess, your greatest accomplishments are yet to come…"_

_ "_Whatever happened to him?" she muttered.

She shoved shoulder first through a wall of vines and immediately had to draw her hand over her eyes. She had stumbled upon a clearing, a circle devoid of trees and bushes, the ground a field of ankle-high, bright blue flowers, where the bright blue sky was finally visible after hours of walking through shadow. Her eyes strained in the bright light forcing her to lower her gaze. She stopped to enjoy the reprieve from the thicket. She had never hear from that general again. He probably gave up on her like everyone else.

She began to feel calm and sleepy. Maybe it was because she stopped walking. Her attention fell onto the flowers; their color was oddly vibrant, they were all packed together too, tightly, their petals overlapping to form a surface that looked strangely translucent, like there was something behind them, like a mirror…

... _Azula…_

She looked up. She had definitely just heard her name. She looked around the perimeter of the clearing. _Is it them, or just a hallucination?_ She raised her guard and listened.

_Azula!_

She heard it clearly, this time louder and from above. She looked to the sky, seeing nothing. It sounded masculine. There was something else attached to it, but it was faint and garbled. _Where are they!? _The voice came again. It was getting closer. She heard the full message this time:

"Azula, come back to Hira'a! We won't hurt you!"

Her heart jumped. _Zuko!_ A guttural roar then sounded and she saw a shadow quickly approaching on the tree tops. _They'll see me! _She darted for the safety of the tree line and leaped for the first tree, just in time to see the Avatar's bison pass overhead.

"Azula!" called Zuko's voice. "Come back to Hira'a!"

"They're looking for me," she whispered, "But from the sky…"

"We won't hurt you…!" Zuko's voice was fading. She peered out slowly from behind the tree to confirm it was clear.

"Of course you won't 'hurt me,'" she mocked. The last of Zuko's calls faded into the background. She let out a sigh of relief. They weren't trailing her in the forest; they weren't really looking for her at all; they were blindly calling her from above, hoping she would, what, seek _them_ out? Signal _them_ to rescue her?

"Idiots."

There was no possible way they would see her through the trees. This was an unexpected turn of events; she began to feel lighter, quicker, more driven to press on, joy. She wouldn't have to worry about being captured, because they weren't even out here to begin with! Maybe they were too afraid to come after her. "Ha!" She smirked. She came out from behind the tree and walked out into the clearing, trampling the flowers beneath her feet. She placed her hands on her hips triumphantly and looked defiantly up at the sky.

She was in the clear. If she became weak, or helpless, they wouldn't be around to take advantage of it. If she got lost, she wouldn't be found. If she disappeared, she would truly disappear. No one would ever know. No one…

Just in time, reality had come to wash away her optimism.

The forest was dim and growing dark. The shimmer of the leaves dancing in the sunlight was gone and now they just rattled in a slow, ominous wind, black against the murky blue twilight of the sky. Night was approaching. Still there was no sign of the river.

_I've walked for hours and found nothing!_

Her clothes clung to her skin, heavy with sweat. The air was cooler, but still immensely humid. The birds were silent; even the mosquitoes were beginning to thin, and he ear splitting scratches of the daytime insects had given way to the high-pitch chirps of the crickets. There were howls and animal shrieks echoing in the distance. She heard a disturbance in the branches above. She flinched, looking up, fists at the ready, only to see a group of lemur-squirrels scrambling overhead, their big red eyes paying her only passing glances, themselves friends of the dark.

She was tired, thirsty, and growing increasingly weary of continuing in the fading light_. Is there even a river? _Tree after tree, vine after vine, it was all the same. It was steadily becoming harder to see. She brushed away a tree branch inches from her face before it struck her. _What if there isn't? Should I have gone a different way? Nowhere around here looks safe to spend the night._

She began to consider the presence of nighttime predators.

_I could stay awake all night. _She looked over her shoulder… she looked back. The idea felt reassuring, but it didn't solve anything about the missing river. _It could just be farther away. Should I keep walking until morning? What if I still come to nothing? How far should I go?_

Fear was beginning to lurk in her mind, but more disturbing was doubt. To even consider turning back… she clearly couldn't. This was the only option. She had to see this through. How far until this river would arrive?

How far until _anything?_

The blue flame flickered in her hand. Night had fallen; she could barely see in front of her, except for what the small circle of light cast by her flame. She was careful not to set anything on fire. Her missed encounter with Zuko earlier gave her peace knowing that nobody would be on the ground to spot her fire, but that was all the peace she would have.

She decided to walk through the night, too afraid to lower her guard to rest, too afraid to stop. She would keep going until morning if she had to, when she could better find some place to rest, or until she found the mythical river, or another pile of boulders, or something, hopefully something.

The blue light didn't seem strong enough; it felt oddly dim and the blue blended with the shadows. For the first time since she could remember, her fire turned orange. It felt weak and unnatural. The change added to her sense of foreboding.

The hours passed.

_It's so quiet. Even the crickets have stopped._

She stepped up and over a rotting log, its bark fibrous and soft in the decay, her flame illuminating it in a red-orange glow. She hopped down from it—_snap!—_landing on a twig.

Vines and trees disappeared behind her as quickly as they came, their shapes materializing out of the darkness in the orange light, melding back into the shadows as she passed.

_ Owooooo!_

There were barks and howls in the distance, sending chills down her spine. _Animals are scared of fire, aren't they? _She looked around the circle of fire-lit trees, positioning the fire as if it were a shield. _Snap out of it, Azula, you're a firebender; you can handle some stupid wolves._

_Snap! _Another twig broke beneath her foot as it pressed into the ground.

_Snap! _

That wasn't from her. The hair stood up on her neck.

_Behind me-!_

Both of her hands burst into flame. She spun around, forming a roaring ring of fire around herself to find see a single white claw and a monstrous looking head flying towards her.

"AAAA-!"

Time slowed, terror shot through her as the monster's body passed through the flames, its fur signed by the heat, headed straight for her. The monster's head was feet from her: a snarling mouth, yellow eyes, and giant white fangs, all aimed at her. Its outstretched claw impacted her left arm. She felt no pain, just the sensation of something there, and began to feel herself being knocked over. She blindly threw her right arm forward and fired a powerful jet of red-orange flame that filled the forest behind them. _Oomph! _She fell to the ground hard, the monster on top her.

Fires crackled in the trees, a dim last was cast, and the huge teeth of the monster pressed against her soft neck, warm with saliva, its body limp. A warm liquid soaked her clothes and was pooling on her neck. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest. She trembled.

"Wha-…Wha-…" She panted, lying there, mind numb. At some point her body realized it was still alive. She craned her over neck to take a look, the slick teeth slipping off her, the animal's jaw loose. It had short fur and stripes.

"A t-tiger," she shuddered, all she could muster. _A tiger… I was attacked by a tiger..._

It dawned on her: the wet warmth she was feeling was blood, _the animal's _blood. She had blasted a hole through its body and now it was now lying dead on top of her, its body emptying of its innards onto her. She was sickened and felt vulnerable. She labored to breath under its weight. She moved to push the thing off of her.

"Ow!" she shrieked, a tearing pain shooting through her left arm. "Oh, god, it hurts!" Tears welled in her eyes.

Her left arm had been pierced by its claw. She could still feel its nails there, digging in. With all the strength she could muster, shoved herself out from under the beast, gritting her teeth against the searing pain emanating from her wound. It was unsettling feeling as one of its dead claws slid lifelessly across her body and caught on her clothes, as if it would still harm her. Free from the beast's dead body, she raised her good arm, scanning around wildly, ready for another fight, pushing with her legs to slide backwards across the ground until she arrived at a tree and lay back against it.

"Attacked," she exhaled, staring at the animal's lifeless body, still reeling from the encounter. She lay in the crook of the trunk, still reeling from the encounter. Rage was growing in her. She bared her teeth and roared, sweeping out a band of flame that set everything around her aflame. "_ANYTHING ELSE WANT TO_—Ah!" Her outburst was cut short as she clutched her injured arm and covered her wound with her hand. She felt blood flowing through her fingers. _That was stupid, you're injured._ She was enraged. She was in pain. Her body was trembling. She quickly turned her attention to her injury.

She lifted her hand off. The fabric was torn and showed the luster of wetness. She held a flame close for light. Running the length of her upper arm was a red gash, gushing dark red blood.

She was horrified.

_Bad, really bad!_

She frantically tried to remember everything she had ever learned about treating injuries, which was hardly anything. She tore a strip of fabric from the remainder of her damaged sleeve and attempted tie it tightly around the wound. It was difficult; her hand shook from nerves and she had to pull it tight with her teeth. It was secure. She looked around for predators again; the fires were growing; she'd have to do something about them soon. She turned back to her wound. The bandage wasn't working; it was still bleeding a frightening amount!

_That's a lot of blood…_

It seemed the tiger had only gotten her with one of its nails, but that was all it needed to rend her arm. She searched her mind for ideas. She went to tear off more clothes, but then stopped. _It's too big to bandage. _She placed her hand over the gash, wincing at the pain, and put more pressure on it. She could feel the warm liquid making its way out from under her palm, running down her arm like warm water. She was terrified.

"There has to be," she exhaled, "Something..." Her vision was growing fuzzy. She leaned her head back, feeling light headed. She knew what was coming upon her. "Stay awake," she whispered to herself. She squeezed the wound. "Think…"

She had an pinched the edges of the gash with her fingers and brought them together."Okay, okay!" she gasped, the pain excruciating, what she was about to attempt scaring her even more. She had no idea if this was going to work.

"Alright," she readied herself. "One," she concentrated on the skin held between her fingers, "Two," her muscles tensed up, she closed her eyes.

"... Three!"

Fire and searing heat formed between her fingers. She burned the skin together.

"Gaaah!" She delicately removed her hands; there was an ugly black mark where her fingers had been. The pain was nauseating, but the wound held.

"It worked," she gasped, relief washing over her. "I can't believe it worked." Biting hard on her shirt, she repeated the process several more times until the entire wound was closed, turning into a sobbing, whimpering mess. She had never before felt the pain of a burn before.

It was finished, the bleeding stopped. Her right arm fell limp to her side as she lay back, drained from the pain, weak from the lost blood. She stared at nothing, trying to forget the pain. The fires crackled in the silence. She didn't know what to think; she was almost killed.

The fires were beginning to grow wild; a forest fire would be great way for her to be found. _Sigh. _She managed to stand herself up, hissing from the pain caused by the slightest motion of her injured arm. _God, it hurts! _Her legs were wobbly, still lightheaded. She leaned against the tree for a moment. She took a few slow steps forward and stopped in front of the body of the dead tiger. It was long and muscular, nimble-looking, several times as massive as her. This thing had tried to kill her. It almost had. Her face twisted into rage.

"ANYTHING ELSE WANT TO TRY!?" she finally shouted out, half-expecting, half- _wanting_ something to come at her so she could prove herself again. Looking back at the tiger, she saw blood on its right claw: _her blood._

"Stupid animal!" She sneered and slammed her boot into its head, letting her anger out on it dead's body. "Ah!" she stopped, clutching her arm when a bolt of pain, and turned away.

_Is this how it's going to be, getting nearly killed by beasts?_

She was in terrible shape. The fires continued to burn, their heat and light making her feel safe. She returned her gaze to direction she had been going. It was the same impenetrable darkness that had gotten her attacked. She shook her head in dismay.

_It's only the first day..._

She was going to have to brave the forest again. It couldn't possibly be tonight, though; already she was feeling like she had been standing for too long, but neither could she stay here; the dead tiger's body could attract other animals. She felt safe by the fire, but they were starting to roar; she knew they had to go. She groaned and lowered her head. _It's just getting worse. If only I knew where I was going… _She lifted her head again and narrowed her eyes at the way ahead. _Or, if it was light out… _

The fires were casting a considerable amount of light. She planted her right foot forward and jabbed with her right arm, shooting a narrow jet of fire out from her two pointed fingers. She watched as the bolt of flame flew into the darkness, partially being cut down by limbs and vines in its path, setting them on fire, waning in size and brightness as it fell away. She concentrated on the flame kept her fingers outstretched, keeping it alive longer. A small sliver remained, getting weaker and distant, illuminating the trees and ground around it in a circle of blue. Suddenly, the ground sparkled beneath it and the flight of the bolt was mirrored underneath. She lost connection to with it and it fizzled out over a mirror-like surface not far ahead.

_ Gasp!_ _Could it be!?_

Her mouth fell open. Suddenly she was filled with excitement and hope. Quickly she began extinguishing the fires, one by one, reaching with an open hand toward a flame, waiting until she felt its pulse, and then closing her hand into a fist, the fire disappearing in a puff. She headed straight toward where the bolt fizzled, pushing through her wooziness, putting out the other fires as she went. She fired another jet of flame ahead, setting more trees on fire, like torches lighting the way, putting them out as she passed.

_Please don't be a spirit pond, please don't!_

The moon's reflection began to materialize on the surface ahead.

_Please!_

She stopped on the edge of a rocky bank. There it was, a black and glassy surface rippling in the moonlight, extending beyond to the left and right, the sound of flowing water filling her ears.

Tears welled in her eyes. "It's real." She collapsed to her knees. "I can't believe it; it's real."

She marveled at the outlines of the trees across the way and the expanse of the river, the open sky allowing the moon shine on everything. She looked up and down the bank. She got to her feet and felt her way towards the nearest boulder by the water's edge and lied against it. She dipped her hand into the dark water; the coolness ran through her fingers. _Sigh..._

She stared peacefully at the black water, the moon's reflection a white sparkling shimmer. What had been a guess, a one last chance at making things right, was real. Her plan might actually work. Things could go right for her. She looked up at the starry night sky, the first time she had in over a year. "I was right," she whispered, closing her eyes. _I was right.  
_

* * *

**_Next time in 'Avatar: The Truth', Chapter Three - Wandering..._**


	3. Chapter Three - Wandering

**Chapter Three**

**Wandering**

... _What should we do with her, Prince Zuko...?_

_ … Take her to the prison, for now. Make sure her legs are chained…_

She was asleep in the river, literally, her body being supported by two rocks sticking out of the water. Her back lay upright against one and her legs draped over the other, forcing her body into a sharp angle. Only someone as flexible as her could have found the position bearable.

Last night, she had followed the river down looking for a place to sleep. After a while of walking in the dark, shivering from shock and paranoia, she came across a pebbly bank where, in the glow of the moonlight, she noticed the outlines of rocks in the water, not far from shore. None looked big enough for her to sleep on, but her desperation had made her very clever.

And so she slept, her body draped over the rocks like a ragdoll, her rear end partly in the water, injured arm close in her lap where it had been when she fell asleep nursing it, and her right arm hanging down to its side, in the water, fingers resting softly on the river bottom, a small crayfish nibbling on the dried blood that covered them.

She awoke with a strange sensation. _What the-_? And jerked her hand out of the water. She looked down. There was nothing to see in the dark. She felt creepy. She brought her right hand close.

She groaned, feeling the soreness and stiffness from having slept in such an awkward position, and then it came: the deep, aching pain emanating from her wound. "Ugh…" She leaned her head back against the rock, uncomfortably, and closed her eyes. _Sigh. Another night, what'll happen to me next?_ She had made it the second day, barely; walking in the dark with no plan for spending the night, getting attacked; it was a disaster. She was lucky to have survived.

The discomfort was keeping her from falling back asleep. She opened her eyes half-way, sleepily. It was barely light out. The river flowed steadily by, grey and glassy like the surface of a dark crystal, but black in the pre-dawn light. The river was wide, the trees on the other shore appearing smaller, where wisps of white mist rose from the treetops like tendrils. Behind this, in the distance, a volcano loomed, still in shadow. She shivered in the cold. It was the light of early morning, before the sun had risen above the horizon. She was sure this time, unlike before; there were lingering stars in the gradually bluing sky.

The flow of the water past her skin felt nice; the scene in front of her was calming; the horrors of the previous day were behind her. _'Don't stay here too long,'_ her mind was telling her. _'Use this early wake-up to get a head start,'_ but she didn't want to move. On land, all the bad things would start again.

"Ow!" One of her legs began to cramp. She tried massaging it, and wriggling her body to get comfortable, butto no avail_._ "Time to get up," she told herself, none too enthusiastically. She was exposed to the sky anyway. It would be best to get moving.

One by one she slipped her legs rock, carefully letting each foot plunk into the water, and then stood up, keeping her back pressed against the rock behind her so she wouldn't fall in. The water only rose half-way up her boots, thankfully; she had discovered this last night while timidly wading through the water, fearing her foot would be swallowed up by some deep pool at any moment. It was a good too thing her boots were waterproof; the benefits of royalty. She slid her feet through the water, careful not to slip on the bottom, or to make too much noise.

She stepped onto dry land, the pebbly bank loose and shifty beneath her feet, and went no farther than the water's edge, for the dark forest was just a few steps away. _Wretched forest, _she glared. She turned and walked up the bank a little ways to sit down beneath the canopy of a large tree, sideways to the water, looking down stream, keeping an eye on the forest. She looked over her shoulder… She turned back around and took her injured arm in her hand, finally having a chance to take a better look.

The wound, no longer bleeding, was a black, crumbling line down the length of her upper arm, from the bottom of her shoulder to her elbow. Brown streaks ran down from it all the way to her fingers; dried blood. Her clothes were covered too, but from the tiger. Her shirt and pants were stiff from it. She was disgusted. She began cupping water with her right hand to clean herself.

_I fight the Avatar multiple times. _She scrubbed vigorously._ I fight warrior and soldiers, Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe. I face my brother in an Agni Kai, and this… THIS is what almost gets me, an animal in the woods!? RIDICULOUS!_

It took a while to get clean. She rubbed her hands in the water, clearing off the rest of the blood, though her clothes remained stained. Her skin was clear, though, except for the black line of her wound. It continued to ache. She tweaked the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut as she rode a wave of pain. She saved herself from bleeding to death, but there was nothing she could do about the infection. _Hopefully not; people get their arms cut off from that. _She needed to get to a physician as soon as possible. "If I survive," she muttered.

Her stomach growled. She clutched it. _Nothing I can do about that._ She hadn't eaten in two days, and even then it had been a small amount; just a meager bowl of unfulfilling rice. She crossed her legs and hunched over, and stared at the divide between the bank and the trees. It was too dark to feel safe walking. A short distance ahead, the bank terminated back into the dense, nightmarish thicket and, farther ahead, the river gradually curved away out of sight.

"Something about all this," she whispered, gazing at the way ahead. "Running away, alone out here, it doesn't feel… real." She felt dull, detached, like she was a ghost outside her body looking shook her head. "What am I doing here?"

"You should have listened to me, my daughter."

Her skin crawled. "No..." She turned her head slowly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw it, the one from her visions. _No! _She turned away and clutched her head, eyes straight ahead and wide open. _Don't listen to it, don't look at it, it's not real, don't make yourself insane!_

"Azula, you're hurt!" Her 'mother's' voice called.

She didn't hear any footsteps. She flinched when her shoulders were caressed by gentle hands. She flung her right arm around, hand balled into a fist to strike whatever was there. The hands went away. She spun around in freight to make sure it wasn't actually an _animal_ behind her. _Can my mind play those tricks on me? _No, it wasn't; it was the vision of her mother, crouching close to her. Their eyes met and they held. Her mother's face was sad and sincere; the face she remembered. Azula averted her eyes, but didn't turn away.

"You should have gone home," the vision said, sorrow in its voice. Azula tried to ignore it. "But you're on the right path now. Stay on this, Azula," it urged. "You will make it, I _know_ you will. Don't fight your brother again. You can't beat him."

Her blood was beginning to simmer.

"You _will_ make things better for yourself," the hallucination continued, its mouth moving as it spoke and its eyes on her. "Don't give up, my beloved daughter, _please don't_. You've made it this far because you _haven't given up._"

The voice was so real, so comforting, so exactly what she wanted to hear that it made her sick. "Haven't given up." She grated her teeth. "How is that even possible-…" _When I've given up everything?_

"You haven't," it said. "It isn't over for you."

"Go away."

"Make it through this forest, Azula," the hallucination said firmly, "And find your true destiny."

"WHAT DESTINY!?"

She looked around; it was gone.

"Well," she said, clearing a few tears that had sprung. "I said I wouldn't," she threw her hands apart. "But I fell for it again!" She fell back against the bank and stared up at the blue spaces of sky between the dark leaves above.

"It's not real," she tried to assure herself, haunted by the realness. … _She'd never talk to me like that…_

The red light of dawn began to reach across the sky. It would be wise to brave the low light and start now; she wouldn't consider getting stuck in the dark again. Azula picked herself up from the ground, limbs still sore, and faced down the river. She took another look at her arm. _I don't know how much time I have with this. I need to get to some place fast._ She untied the makeshift, blood soaked bandage from last night and stuffed it in her pocket, so no one could track her. She went to start walking, but her body wouldn't budge.

The tiger had been so quiet, so close, _so-... _She shivered. A second later, she would've been dead.

_Stop being so afraid! _She demanded. _You'll be safer by the river… Should be… Just remember why you're doing this. Remember..._

_ ... Fire Lord Zuko has ordered for you to stay here…_

Her right leg stepped forward.

Her clothes were again soaked with sweat, but this time they chafed against her skin. The air was stifling, feeling even more humid than yesterday. She stayed as close to the river's edge as she could, trudging through the thick bushes and leaves that lined it, sometimes having to climb, with difficulty, over fallen logs in her path if going around meant venturing any farther into the dangerous forest. The sun was directly overhead. What light didn't make it through the canopy bounced off the river and hit her squarely in the eyes. It was a constant nuisance, like the swarming bugs. It must have been about noon.

_I should be in the palace right now. _She carefully waded through a mass of leaves that may have been poison ivy. _I'd be coming out of a war meeting, about rebuilding the world, father's plans for his kingdom… Then I'd go to the kitchen, and order my lunch: broiled eel-snake over ice, lots of it, with pickled vegetables, and a cold drink..._ The wonderful scent filled her nose. "Ack!" She coughed and reeled. And so did a bug.

She came back to her senses. "I should never have lost."

That day, when everything had come crashing down, was still as clear in her mind as the day it had happened. The dazzling heat and light of the titanic blasts of fire, the stories of the Comet hardly comparing, a power and confidence in her brother that she never thought she would see, attack after her own attack being deflected like it was nothing, the peasant and Zuko staring at her while she lay in defeat, the city burning behind them, her life's turn of events as abysmal and grotesque as the blood red sky above. Her stomach still turned when she remembered the moment of defeat and her hands instinctively felt her wrists as she imagined the chains tie around them. She groaned and put her palm to her face. "Zuko was down; I had the peasant on the run; why did I chase her?"

She had long decided that falling into the peasant's trap was her fatal mistake, but the past few days were making her look at things differently; maybe the _entire battle_ was a mess! She had always been on the offensive, never giving Zuko the chance to tire _himself_ out, letting herself be taunted into making lightning. He could have turned it on her! Thank Heaven he went to protect the peasant; he could have launched a fire blast at her…

She was intensely frustrated, _terrified_ by her sudden inadequacy against her brother. It didn't make any sense; she had _never_ faced anyone better than her, let alone Zuko! For the first time in her life, she felt defeat breathing down her neck. She attacked harder and faster, pouring everything she had into her flames, thinking her fury would make her stronger, but in reality it only exhausted her. Worst, though, it made her stupid, like her embarrassment two nights ago in the house when she failed to land a single blow. But she didn't lose against Zuko's firebending; seeing her brother hit the ground, spastic and in pain from his failed attempt to handle her lightning, her fear into euphoria; laughing, playing with the peasant, drawing out her demise, enjoying it, acting like she was… _Sigh. _She stopped walking and her gaze fell toward the ground.

_This isn't me._

Sweat dripped down her nose. It was sweltering; too hot even for the birds and noise making insects. The only sounds were the subtle babbling of the river and the voice of her thoughts. _Bizzz—_she swatted at a mosquito flying by her ear.

She turned toward the river. She was thirsty, but also she needed a reprieve from the stinging sweat penetrating her wound. Looking cautiously around first, she set the ground behind her on fire and knelt at the water's edge. She bent over the water and paused; her reflection stared back at her, dark in the shade, muddled by the rippling surface and stained color of the water. Swollen bug bites blemished her slowly tanning, crud covered skin; clumps of loose hair lay over her face, dislodged from their ribbon, her expression a tired frown. She pressed her lips to the water and closed her eyes to drink. It was cool and refreshing, though it tasted dingy and like plants.

It wasn't that she was averse to surviving in the elements; all great warriors could live off the land, setting traps, knowing what to eat. She had always felt that too many people around her were unwilling to leave the comforts of the capital and venture out into the world. That wasn't her, though; she was proud to have gotten her hands dirty. It was just that, she didn't know how to do any of those things to survive; she was a princess who was used to the comforts of the palace.

_Was a princess_, she reminded.

Satisfied, she stopped drinking and opened her eyes. In the reflection beside her was the image of a man.

"AAAH!" She whipped around so quickly that she fell backwards into the water—_Zuko!?_—and swept a wall of blue flames so large that it reached the tree tops, setting everything in its path on fire. It hit nothing but forest. Wild-eyed and heart racing, she scanned everywhere, but there was nothing around.

She blinked. _It was a vision? _She kept looking, expecting danger. _But it wasn't mother!_

She had a bad feeling. Quickly she collected herself, backside dripping wet, and extinguished the fires. Weary of the smoke that had wafted through the tree tops and her loud, piercing scream, she hastily proceeded down the river.

Had she looked again, she would have still seen the man in the water.

_Who was that? WHAT was that? It's never been anyone but mother! _Her pace was quick as she left the site of the encounter, mind the full brightness of day she had become frightened like it was racked her brain for an answer. _I know it was a man, but who? Was it Zuko, Father? No, no, I don't think so, but-… Ugh! Why does it feel so familiar? _Though its features were obscured by the water, she felt like she had seen him before.

… _This isn't right; the visions have never been 'here and gone' like this, and never have they been frightening! _She recalled other inmates at the institution, terrified by what they saw, flailing and screaming for help. They were mostly normal, except they were completely out of touch with reality. It made her sick when she was thought to be the same. Her stomach twisted into a knot. _I hope I'm not getting worse!_ Her fear of her mind leading her astray out here could be coming true. _It might have been a spirit! _That put her at ease, but created a new concern: what would a spirit want with her?

The spirit wolf had attacked them for no reason, but it seemed more like an animal in its thinking; the three-headed monster in the pond looked gruesome, but it could speak and was generous, although it seemed to conceal a temper. Then there was the flutter bat, if it was a spirit; it had been 'nice' and helped the Avatar. But those were the only spirits she had ever met in her life, and the past few days had opened her eyes to the truth: the spirits weren't passive, irrelevant creatures of myth, but very real, very _dangerous_ beings that could seemingly do _anything_ they wanted. She gulped. What could one of those things want with her?

_"Your sister set fire to half the landscape!"_

_ "I said to be respectful!"_

"_Oh yeah, nature hates you!"_

_Oh, great, like it wasn't bad enough! _Worry and anger filled her as she remembered the possibly truthful mocking of the snow peasant. On top of man-eating beasts, there could be some vengeful forest-spirit trailing her, for killing a few dumb plants. _What about forest fires, ever think about those!? _She wanted to shout, but knowing better not to. If it was a spirit that had been behind her, maybe it had vanished because it didn't expect her to see it and she had thwarted its attack. _Then it's a coward. _Or, maybe it was still out there, hiding, watching, waiting for another chance to strike.

She looked around nervously, expecting to spot something big, bright, and colorful stalking amongst the trees, but then realized that maybe not all spirits looked like the meager few she had ever seen. More troubling, she just realized, was that she had seen a _person_, not a creature. Could this spirit change shape, its appearance, turn invisible? She saw nothing moving in the shadows. It was dead quiet. _Maybe the animals are scared of something. _She thought of calling out to whatever might be around. _Do I apologize to it? How? Would it even care?_ She rounded the edge of a wall of vines that blocked her way and froze.

Hanging from a low-lying tree limb just a few feet in front of her was a giant flutter bat, staring at her. Its body was enormous, several times her size. She stood impeccably still. The bat's leathery wings were wrapped around its body like a shell, one swipe from them looking big enough to send her flying, and at the end of each was a single, shiny, hooked claw, sharp and black, as big as her head. Worst of all was its face, furry and bug-like, hideous, its yellow tongue curled into its face like a butterfly and hundreds of tiny, faceted reflections of herself showing in its giant purple eyes. She wasn't prepared to fight this beast, too close to it, no room to move. She slowly began back away-…

"_Follow me and I will show you your way."_

She blinked. "… What?" Her face was a childish look of puzzlement and fear.

_"Follow me," _the voice came again._ "I will take you to where you need to go."_

The voice was sounding in her head, a squeaky, high-pitch echo, seemingly from nowhere. _Where's it coming from?_ The bat's body didn't move. Her gaze was drawn to its eyes that stayed fixed on her own…

_"Do you need help?"_

She shook her head. "Uh," feeling her thoughts coming back. "What?" The bat continued to stare at her.

"_Do you know where you're going?"_

The bat was speaking to her, through her mind! _So, it IS a spirit. Is this the same one that helped the Avatar_? The spirit bat appeared to be waiting for her answer. She needed to be smart about this.

"No," she said.

_ "Suit yourself."_

The bat dropped from its perch, spread its giant wings, and with a '_swoosh'_, turned around mid-air right in front of her and took off flapping down the river. She felt the warm breeze of the beaten air rush past her. She watched, with a slight look of uncertainty as the giant bat spirit fluttered away, light and delicate like a butterfly.

"That was probably the right thing to do," she said to herself as the bat disappeared from sight, taking with it its offer of help. She didn't know what 'help' meant to it, anyway, and why would a spirit want to help her? For all she knew, it could be helping the Avatar. A disturbing possibility crossed her mind: was this spirit leading them to her?

She flinched, hearing a twig snap, and promptly scanned around. She returned her gaze down river.

_It didn't lead us directly to mother, or whoever that woman was, just where the Avatar wanted_ _to go._ _Why did it want to help me? _There was still the question of what she had seen in the water. It dawned on her that she could have asked the spirit bat these questions. She could have delayed it, tricked it into giving her the information she needed, but, then again, perhaps she was smart enough not to mess with a spirit.

She wasn't nearly as alone out here as she thought anymore. Maybe the spirit bat could be trusted, or maybe it wasn't as kind as it seemed…

Insects were gathered over the river in hazy, shifting clouds; easy targets for the fish that rocketed out of the water towards them and crashed heavily back in in a splash of glittering gold in the late afternoon sun. The rest of the river shimmered in the sunlight. Birds were soaring and diving at the bugs and fish and, far away in the distance, the looming volcano from morning was a diminutive fraction of its original size.

She sat beneath a tree on the bank, watching the scene lazily. She was done walking for the day, though many hours of light still remained; she had been overcome by fear of the night when she first noticed the light in the forest diminishing, so she picked the first place she came across that looked as though she could spend the night: another pebbly bank where the water appeared shallow and where there were flat rocks not far away from shore. It actually seemed perfect; she would have been foolish not to stop. She knew she was losing valuable time by stopping so early, and that concerned her, a little, but she felt she could afford the delay, getting attacked by another animal she could not. The only problem now was that there still many hours left in the day. _Sigh. _She was bored.

Maybe that was a good thing; there was a chance this day could still end without catastrophe.

A bird slammed unusually hard into the water nearby, catching her attention. It came out carrying a fish in its talons, flapping hard to stay aloft. She watched the bird fly up and away, passing the trees on the far end of the bank in front of her. She could see the fish gasping for breath. As her eyes followed, she did a double take when she noticed a dark object hanging high in a tree from a tree limb.

It was the flutter bat! Or, _a_ flutter bat. _How long has it been there!? _She pictured the Avatar suddenly gliding over the tree tops and her brother's gang appearing out of the trees. She got to her feet and prepared for the end. Fleeing felt hopeless if this thing could just find her so easily. She would take her final stand.

An hour passed and all that changed was that it got a little bit darker and she grew tired of standing on her feet. She sat calmly back down, keeping a suspicious watch on the flutter bat, which stayed put, watching her as well. Though it was far away, she could make out its glassy purple orbs. _Is it even the same one from before?_ She was going to get answers this time.

How could she communicate with it, though? "I don't think it can hear me from here..." She tried staring into its eyes.

_Are you the one I met earlier? _She 'thought' to it.

"_Yes," _sounded the familiar squeaky echo.

She shuddered from the feeling. _So it is._ She looked away from the bat, not wanting it to hear her other thoughts. She looked back. _Why are you trying to help me?_

_ "I'm not."_

Her eyebrow rose. That was suspicious. _Then are you watching me?_

"_In case you change your mind."_

She rolled her eyes. It was clearly being vague, and she didn't trust its attitude either. She didn't ask it anything further. Then again, the Avatar _hadn't _shown up yet. She glanced back up at it. _What's this this planning?_ She returned to waiting for the day to end, periodically glancing up at the mysterious spirit bat.

Dusk came and the dark blues and oranges of sunset, and the yawning shadows stretched across the land. She waded out into the river to her sleeping spot. Terror shot through her when her feet slipped on the bottom and the water went up to her waist, the swift current threatening to topple her over, but she made it, and spent the remainder of the evening sitting on her chosen rock, draining her boots and letting her clothes dry. When she went to look up at the flutter bat, it was gone.

'_Guess it needs to sleep too. _That didn't mean there wasn't anything else watching her. She made herself uneasy thinking about hidden monsters and things reaching out at her from the depths of the river. She scolded herself for such childish thoughts; there weren't any creatures like that out here... were there?

Night fell. She lied back in the pitch darkness, the sound of the night-time insects and the howls of the wolves filling her ears, her legs bent slightly as the rock wasn't long enough, her injured arm resting on her lap and the hand of her uninjured one placed beneath her head as a pillow as she gazed up at the night sky. It had been dark for some time.

"_Who are you talking to, Princess?" The attendant asked the young royal, who was engaged in conversation with her mirror._

_ "Oh, is she another of your conspirators, Mother!?" Azula shouted at the mirror, annoyed by the intrusion of the woman. "Trying to make me look insane in front of everyone?!" _

"_Who do you see?" The attendant asked calmly._

"_Of course you can't see her!" Azula turned around furiously toward the woman. "Don't you get it!? Only I can!"_

_Sigh. _It had been a long time since she was kept awake by her thoughts. Her delusion had been a dam to this, the blame she put on her mother giving her a way to understand, allowing her reason to believe that she would succeed, in the end, no matter what. She didn't feel that way anymore. All of her troubles were flooding back

She tried to think of pleasant things—playing in the palace grounds, the best times at the beach, laughing with Mai and Ty Lee, that one time a boy came up to _her _at her fourteenth birthday—but every thought, every memory found a way of circling back to her defeat—the palace wasn't hers anymore, always competing with Zuko, her friends were fake—or, simply made her unhappy—that boy had grown hesitant and nervous as the evening went on and she remembered lying awake that night too, angry, wondering why. That memory now reminded her of her own people, who were probably just as disinterested in her as that boy. It was as if her defeat had reached across her entire life, and poisoned it.

She groaned and closed her eyes. _Don't I have __**any**__ happy memories?_

_"Come on, Spark! Keep up, they're gaining!" Their older cousin called as he threw clods of dirt at them from atop the hill. Zuko was ahead of her as they ran from an imaginary army of Earth Benders._

A feeling of warmth began to well in her.

_ "... And when the metal starts to feel soft," he wrinkled his brow in concentration._

_ Chink! _

"_Walla!" He pulled the melted chain out from behind him and showed off his free hands, the metal still glowing red. She stared in amazement. _

_ "That's one way for a firebender to escape," he winked at her._

_ "Lu Ten!" Her mother's worried voice called from across the way. "Don't show her that; she might hurt herself if she tries!"_

_ "Ha, ha, ha! Don't worry, Aunt Ursa, she can't firebend yet!" He called over his shoulder. He leaned in close to her and whispered. "You won't try until you're ready, will you? She'll know I've been showing you." _

_ She tried to keep from giggling at his half-serious, half-smiling face. "No," she managed to say._

_ "Good. Now let me show you another…"_

_ "… Your cousin, Lu Ten, has died in battle…"_

"Lu Ten," she whispered, opening her eyes. "What would you have of all this?" She was surprised to be thinking of her cousin; it felt like ages since she had. She gazed up at the stars, trying to hang on to the memories, but they began to fade. There wasn't much left.

"Like it matters," she rolled over unhappily, shutting her eyes once more. The only family who wasn't touched by her failures was dead.

After sulking and failing to fall asleep for a while more, she rolled back over. Her mind lingered on her cousin. Would he have been Fire Lord? Would he have fought against Zuko? Would he even have let the two of them fight? The memories were foggy; she wasn't even sure if the face, or the voice, she remembered was actually his, but one thing was clear...

_You always treated me like I was normal, no matter what I did._

She thought of her living family, of her brother and how she hated him, her mother, who resented her, and her father… she worried what he was going to think when he found out she failed again.

_Maybe it's normal to be unhappy with your family; Mai and Ty Lee always complained about theirs. Ty Lee even ran away…_

_"I'll never tell anyone,"_ _a younger version of Azula said to her friend, placing a reassuring hand on the shoulder of an equally young Ty Lee, who looked scared and unsure._

_Ty Lee stared back at her, worried, sad, hesitant, knowing this could be the last time they ever saw each other. Her friend's confidence was reassuring. Ty Lee smiled at her. "Friends forever," she said, determined to make it true._

_Maybe it doesn't mean anything after all that my mother hated me._

Azula lay awake for some time longer, eventually seeing a spectacular shooting star streak across the sky. She didn't think of its beauty, or of the tradition of wishing for luck; she thought of the Comet.

Eventually she fell asleep, to be jarringly awoken in total darkness to the sensation of water filling her throat and nose and being swallowed by wetness all around. She clamored and flailed back to the rock, swallowing water in her panic, and spent the rest of the night in an uneasy, sopping wet sleep.

Sometime during the night, the giant flutter bat quietly returned to its perch and kept its eyes on her all night.

* * *

**_Next time in 'Avatar: The Truth', Chapter Four - Lost..._**


	4. Chapter Four - Lost

**Chapter Four**

**Lost**

_Dead trees and twisted vines all around, burned, black, their gnarled shapes silhouettes against the blood-red sky._

_ 'Where am I?'_

_ Ash was falling steadily from the air, pale and fragile, breaking against her clothes, and the ground a powdery layer of it that padded beneath her feet._

_ 'Is this what snow is like?'_

_ She was passing through this barren landscape not knowing where she was going, but hardly thinking much of it either. Her mind seemed hazy._

_ Ooooooo..._

_ A constant low howl filled her ears, like the sound of a distant wind._

_ OoooOOOOoooo…_

_The ground was bumpy and uneven. Her forward foot slipped on something loose beneath the ash, making a hollow sound. She looked down and saw a round dome and two sunken holes where eyes should have been._

'_Gasp!' _

_She stumbled away from the spot, her feet slipping on more loose and hollow objects._

'_Oh god!'_

_She saw that the entire ground was strewn with skulls, bones too, partially poking out of the ash for as far as she could see. Her heart pounded, she felt paralyzed as she searched for a place to get away, every direction looking the same. Something was happning: the shadows behind her… were growing darker and getting closer!_

_'Goooo…' She began to hear a message in the wind. She stared, frozen, at the approaching darkness. 'GOOOOOOO!'_

_ She took off running in the opposite direction, the shadows following her, swallowing everything behind. She ran as fast as she could, past the twisted trees that all looked the same, her feet slipping on every bone beneath them. She glanced behind her and saw something roiling and twisting in the blackness. There was something inside! Up ahead, light began to appear through the trees. She went for it. The shadows were almost upon her. She felt something touch her from behind._

_ 'Goooo!' The wind called. 'GOOOOOOOOO!'_

_She dived through light—'Oomph!'—and landed on hard ground. She panted and gasped. Her hands were clasping dry dirt and there was grass around her, yellow and dry. No ash, no trees, no engulfing shadows—she looked behind her; the forest was gone. She was overlooking an ocean, flat and shimmering red. The sky was crimson and dotted with stars, and a bright red light emanated over the horizon. _

'_Stars during the day?' _

_She looked ahead and noticed that she lay on a winding dirt path on the side of a hill that was topped by a castle. _

'_Shelter!' _

_She got to her feet and took a step forward; her vision shook; suddenly she was before the castle's great wooden gate. _

'_Gooooo!' The wind continued to howl. She felt drawn to this place. She reached for the iron knocker-_

_ -She was inside._

_ Silence; the wind was gone. _

"_Hello?" Her voice echoed through the dark passages. "Is anybody here?" _

_No answer. All was quiet. The hallways to her left and right terminated in utter darkness. _

"_Please, I need help!" She stayed put, holding her injured arm, waiting for someone to come. There was no light, except for what came through a row of large glass doors at the far end of a room in front of her. The room was large and full of tables with chairs overturned atop of them. It looked like a dining hall. She peered through the entryway to see out through the glass doors to the outside. Standing beneath a tree by a small pond was the shape of a person!_

_ She headed straight for them, pushing past the dusty chairs and tables and sliding the doors aside._

"_Hello?" She called to the person, their back turned. "Hello!" She called again, louder, still receiving no response. It appeared to be a woman, her shape slender and thin, hair long and flowing down her back. Her arms looked to be folded in front of her chest and she seemed to be gazing at the water. Azula stopped a few paces short of the person, who didn't seem to notice she was there. She could see their reflection in the water, but it was muddled in the grayness. "Please," she begged. "I know you don't know who I am, but-"_

_ "Ha ha ha ha…" The woman laughed in a slow, low voice. Azula was unnerved. She began to take a step back when the unknown woman turned around quickly, her long untamed hair whipping around. "Welcome back!" Azula's own face sneered at her!_

_ "No…" Azula tripped and fell backwards, watching as her own image approached her, laughing, crazy-eyed and grinning. The light fell away and she found herself in a dark room with soft walls and her arms wrapped tightly to her sides._

_ 'No!' She knew what it all was now. 'I need to get out!' She twisted and squirmed against the jacket's embrace, her legs stuck together too. 'I need to get out!' A mask was secured to her face with a piece of leather between her teeth, muffling her words. She fought and kicked and tried to burn away the restraints, but only felt unbearable heat in her hands and feet. She froze at the sound of clunking metal, followed by a long screech and blinding light filling the room._

_ "We're not going to hurt you, Princess Azula."_

_ It was a woman's voice, her body silhouetted in the doorway. Azula's eyes strained in the light. She kept still and watched as the person walk toward her._

_ "I'm sure you're very worried," the woman began to crouch near her. "But you have nothing-"_

_ Thock!_

_ The heels of Azula's shoes struck the woman squarely in the jaw. Her head whipped back and her body fell to the floor. She didn't move. Two more shadows filed into the room, slipping past her attempts to assault them. She sneered and growled as they grabbed her by the shoulders._

_ "Ah!" Several sharp jabs pierced into her neck and sides. Her limbs turned to jelly and her whole body fell limp. Her head slumped forward and she felt her weight lifted off the floor._

_ Her feet were dragging and the smooth stone floor was passing beneath. They were taking her somewhere. She tried hard to look around, but her head wouldn't budge. Her mind was racing, she felt disoriented; she had just arrived at this place; her body felt dead. They came to a stop; another door opened; she was brought inside._

_ She heard murmuring._

_ "Okay, Princess!" Sounded a man's voice in a friendly, chipper tone. She was spun around and lifted off the floor, one of her captors holding her feet and the hands of the other beneath her arms. She caught sight of a porcelain tub out of the corner of her eye. There were lumpy and shiny things floating in it. "The cold will be unpleasant." He said as they lowered her down. "But the shock will help clear your mind…"_

_ The frigid water engulfed her body up to her neck, piercing her like a thousand frozen knives…_

"AAAH!"

She sat straight up, one of her bare feet pulling out of the river, the dream world collapsing around her for the dim blues and grays of morning. She panted and scanned around, feeling her body for the restraints. Masses of mist were rolling eerily past her on the surface of the water, like clouds in the sky. It was barely light out. Her limbs were free. She placed a hand firmly on the rock; it was warm from her body. She sighed.

"It was only a dream." She closed her eyes and waited for the lingering feelings to pass…

"Ow!" She clutched her injured arm and moaned. "Oooh..." The pain was worse than yesterday. _I need to get out of here._ She gathered up her clothes and plunged into the river.

The small stones and twigs of the shore pressed into her bare skin as she sat wrestling her damp pants up her legs, still not dry from pulled and kicked; one leg on. _It felt so real. _The nightmare continued to haunt her. She pictured all the nurses and doctors, all the hallways and corridors, clean and regal, but hiding what really went on inside; the piercing screams and wailing of the inmates, of her own, the touch of the restraints, the taste of the leather-

"Stop," she told herself. "You'll never go back there." She was anxious to get moving. She looked up at the trees, seeing no sign of the mysterious spirit bat from yesterday. Birds were beginning to sing. She finished dressing and continued her journey through the forest.

_How far did I go yesterday—_she could hardly see in the dim, pre-dawn twilight, the thickness of the forest making it seem even darker—_twenty miles?_ She tried to imagine all of the maps of the countryside she had ever seen in order to get an idea of the average distance between towns and cities, and therefore, how far she had to go.

_Gah! _

But it was no use; what looked like two days of journey in her mind could have been much more, and Hira'a was lost among all of the nameless dots.

_Why didn't I look at a map before I left!? _She took a deep breath. _Just keep following the river; you're bound to arrive somewhere._

She was racked by an intense pang of hunger. She clutched her stomach, feeling like it was turning inside out.

_"Follow me and I will show you your way,"_ the bat's words repeated in her head.

_ No, _she countered, feeling herself beginning to doubt her decision to turn it away. _I can't trust it. There's no reason for a spirit to want to help me-_

_ Thud!_

Something soft and dense stuck her on the top of her head.

"Oof!"

She fell onto her rump, the surprise sending a shock through her body that made her legs run out from under her and her right hand reflexively shoot a halfhearted jet of blue flame that fizzled. The strange object rolled onto the ground and settled in front of her. She rubbed her head, feeling a sticky wetness. _Blood?!_ She probed her scalp with her fingers, but felt no wound. She picked up the object that had hit her; it was round, yielded to her grasp and, in the dim light, had the resemblance of a fruit. She gasped—_Could it be!?—_and looked up for the tree that had borne it.

Staring down at her was the horrific bug-face of the spirit bat.

"Ah!" It looked like a monster.

It hovered overhead beating the air in near silence.

_"Eat," _the familiar voice sounded in her head.

She was startled, but not afraid. She looked down at the fruit. _It didn't fall from a tree… It brought it here._ Her stomach growled. "'Keep her alive,' they probably said." She threw it away and got back to her feet. She looked up defiantly at the bat's eyes. "Don't help me," she declared to it aloud. "And tell them they'll _never_ take me alive!"

The flutter bat hovered in place as it watched the strange human walk away.

The sky was a flat, unbroken layer of gray and white, a sheet of clouds having moved in during the night. She still sweltered in the choking humidity, but the lack of sun made it a bit more bearable. She saw her first land animals other than the tiger; a pack of deer wolves began to approach her, but quickly dispersed when she showed them her fire and sent one squealing with its fur burning from a well-placed shot. She smirked, but remained on edge for more. The landscape was beginning to change; it was becoming uneven and rocky, leading her to wonder if the river was just winding around through the mountains, to nowhere.

Another morning of trudging through the wilderness passed and she was finally beginning to feel the isolation of being very far away.

There was an unusually bright patch of light through the trees ahead. She maneuvered past the rocks and boulders that littered the base of a hill she was traveling across and arrived at the light; it was an opening to the edge of a wide clearing. She sighed, relieved, finally getting a break from the jungle. It was a flat and rocky area devoid of trees, the grass swept over in the direction of the river and covered in a fine layer dry mud as if from a recent flood. To the left, the river flowed on, and to the right, a gray wall of tall, unclimbable rock… blocked her way.

She groaned, lowering her head in dismay. The ridge extended to the water and terminated in a bare cliff that was capped by a smooth spire that reached high above the trees. She kicked the ground in frustration, all of the wasted time and energy it'd take going around. _I don't know how much longer I can keep going like this_! Already she was feeling weak and it was only morning. Her plan could be right; there really could be village or city somewhere down this river, but she might not last long enough to get there. Or, maybe she'd have to turn away from the river at some point. Where would that be? She needed to know where she was going; simply walking blindly through this place, hoping to arrive somewhere… just didn't feel possible.

_Wait a minute… _She looked up at the spire, paying attention to its height. _I can climb to the top… and look out! _The slope to the summit was gradual before becoming near vertical for a shorter length. It looked doable. Her eyes grew wide with excitement; she could scout the surrounding area and know for certain which way to go! There was no time to lose. She turned and began scrambling up the hill, hoping it'd take her to the ridge. It was a steadily steepening, rocky incline with trees growing from it, forcing her to grab hold of the bare roots that snaked over the stone and thin dirt.

_I'll know how much farther I have to go. _She felt the energy to keep going; two days, three days, maybe more, if she only knew there was a destination in the end. _No more wondering. I'll know my chances._ _I just have to see it. I just have to know it's there._

The hill began to flatten and turn to bare stone, putting her at the edge of the ridge. She held onto a root and pulled herself up to stand on the top, the canopies from the trees below close above her head.

_There it is. _

The spire stood like a gray beacon at the far end of the ridge. She took a step forward, and stopped; it was open sky between here and there, all tree-less and bare. She'd be even more noticeable on the spire. If Zuko was in the sky right now, he would certainly see her. Fear pulsed through her. "It's worth it," she said to herself. "They probably won't follow me into the forest anyway. Just keep an eye out. Get up and down fast. You need to see what's out there..." She took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and ran.

She kept a watchful eye on the sky. It was blank, except some soaring black dots that hopefully were just birds. _Could any of them be the bison?_ Perhaps they could come shooting over the treetops any moment. Her confidence grew as the spire got closer and the possibility of seeing where this ordeal would end drew near. She pushed herself to run faster. _I need to know! _She was half-way there.

She arrived at the base, panting, trying to catch her breath for the climb. She looked up; it looked much taller than from afar. _Good_. Save for an unevenness that appeared to provide places for footholds, it was smooth. Her hands began to sweat."You can do this." She had been in higher places before. She looked over her shoulder, giving the sky one last scan, and turned back to begin the climb.

She huffed and hissed, timing her breath with each careful motion, her right arm burning with exhaustion while the other clung uselessly to her shirt. Every muscle strained to keep her steady on the stone face, feeling just one wrong move away from falling. She could hardly turn to see the sky behind her; no turning back now. She looked down; it was a _long_ way to the rocky, jagged ground below.

_Slip!_

"Ah!"

Her right foot slid down an inch before catching. Her body tensed, her heart thumped. She pressed her fingers and feet harder into the rock. She was steady once more. Looking to the right, the tree tops were just barely in her line of sight. "Damn!" She was high up now, nearing the steepest part of the climb.

"You've done this before," she said, turning back to the rock and focusing. "These boots climbed the drill!" Slowly, she lifted her right leg, feeling all of her weight shift to the other—it held—and then found another foothold. It felt like only a sliver was holding on. She lifted the other and pushed herself up.

With every torturous motion, the summit grew closer. She began to see over the trees and saw the carpet of green that was the distant forest. The spire began to curve away and flatten. She laid her front side on the rock. _Almost there!_ She instinctively reached with _both_ arms, not thinking, and pulled, the pain searing in her left arm and uselessly weak. She pushed with her legs and slid across the stone, grinding to a halt, all her weight firmly on her chest, and no longer did she feel the fear of falling.

"I made it," she panted, body aching, her right cheek pressed into the warm rock as she gazed out over the land she had journeyed from, no, the land she had _defeated_; the endless forest and the river winding off into the distance towards the volcanoes and beyond. There was no sign of Hira'a.

She began to chuckle, then a smirk showed on her face; eventually she smiled. She closed her eyes and rolled over, the good feelings of the past filling her; shooting around the mail carts in New Ozai without the slightest fear; facing the Avatar on the drill at the wall of Ba Sing Se and her boots, _these boots_ she had on now, saving her from falling; she clung to the rock like she did that steel. "I'm still strong." She laid there remembering what glory had felt like.

"Alright," she opened her eyes, coming back to reality. "'Time to find out." She looked forward to only being two, maybe three days away; the glare of the ocean, the faint outline of a large city in the distance is what she imagined. It could be farther than that, maybe not even a city and just a backwater village, but at least she would know it was there; that meant she could make it. She got to her feet and took a sweeping look of the area behind her; she was at least a hundred yards in the air and could see for miles around. With a deep breath, she turned and settled her sights on the land ahead.

The color drained from her face.

"No…"

The way ahead was all forest, the same endless forest of rolling hills and bluffs and faraway mountains; a sea of green with a river winding through it, growing smaller and smaller until it disappeared at that point where the sky met the ground in a wall of haze, with no indication that the ocean, or anything else, lied beyond. There were large hills blocking her sight in some places, but it appeared she was seeing for _tens_ of miles and there was nothing lining the river.

She started to feel cold. "This can't be right." She scanned around, looking desperately for any sign of civilization, but the harder she tried, the clearer it was becoming. "This was supposed to work." She kept looking, but nothing appeared. "THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO WORK!"

_Your last plan didn't work._

A lump formed in her throat. She started to blink.

_You're going to die out here._

She felt woozy. She looked over at the forest below. "I need to get down from here…" She sat on the edge of the summit and put her feet over. She dug her heels in and let go, sliding down the rock face at a fast clip. The rock tore her clothes until it leveled out, her descent coming to an abrupt halt. She winced, the skin feeling raw, but she paid it no attention. She had to get to the safety of the shadows. She ran across the ridge for the trees, the sky feeling like a giant watching eye.

_There's no chance now._

Tears streamed from her furious eyes.

_How it was is how it will always be._

Her chest was heaving, but her breaths were shallow. She saw herself, lying dead in the wilderness, forgotten. The shadows of the trees passed overhead. She scrambled down the slope until finding a spot between a boulder and a tree and wedging herself between on the steep decline of the hill. She felt isolated and hidden. She clutched her head and curled into herself, trying to regain control of her breathing. "Relax," she gasped. "Don't lose control. Not again…"

… _Zuko and the peasant stood over her as they watched her panic in defeat, spewing fire and screaming…_

… _The soldiers held her by the arms while she snarled at them as they led her onto the ship in chains…_

_ … The guards sat on her while the others rushed over to paralyze her…_

"Not again," she whispered.

The mystery of the crazy princess who perished in the woods would be all that remained. Her right fist burst into flame. She punched the boulder with all her might, the concussion of the blast softening the blow and shaking her body, a molten glowing depression left behind in the rock.

"Ahhh." She didn't come out unscathed, though, her hand sore and tingling with pain. "That was stupid." She closed her eyes and lay back against the tree.

"_Give up this futile quest…"_

"… _Go home…."_

She felt her resolve slipping away like water through a sieve; all of that endless wilderness, all of those wild animals and spirits, all of the days, weeks of journeying, every moment having the chance of getting attacked again, every day getting sicker from her wound.

"Isn't this when you're supposed to come and tell me, 'everything will be fine?'" She muttered, calling upon her mother's ghost.

She wanted that wretched hallucination to come so she could call it a liar. She wanted it to tell her everything would be okay, and give her no reason why because that's how she would know once and for all that it was fake; _nothing_ was going to be okay. She wanted it crouch beside her and put its gentle hands on her, and tell her to keep going… because that would be the only thing telling her to.

She waited for the hallucination to come.

It never did.

Her panic eventually subsided and she remained between the boulder and tree for a long time, coming to terms with the collapse of her grand bid to turn things around, gazing up at the sky through the spaces between the leaves, as her tears of anger and failure dried on her cheeks.

She didn't feel like moving anymore. There wasn't a reason to. 

* * *

_**Coming up next in 'Avatar: The Truth', Chapter Five – The Shrine...**_


	5. Chapter Five - The Shrine

**Author's note: I'm trying out a new way of marking breaks in the story. I don't think my previous method was showing up in Fanfiction's system.**

**Chapter Five**

**The Shrine**

_KRRRAK!_

_ Booooom!_

She laid awake, listening to the rain and watching the flashes of blue washout the forest in light before returning darkness. Sometime during the night, the gray clouds had turned into a storm. The rain pounded and the wind was roaring through the trees. She heard the twisting and snapping of tree limbs breaking and the booming _thud _as they struck the ground. Only a short stretch of rock hung over her and the open sky; little splashes from the rain wetted her face and the dirt in front of her was feeling increasingly wet. _Sigh..._

Hours passed and the dim glow of early morning began to appear; the trees black shapes in the cool, dark blue and still the rain fell. She sat up, back against the stone in the hole she had found in the side of the ridge, having stayed in the area after yesterday's crushing revelation. She shivered in the dampness, a shallow puddle forming in her dwelling and beginning to wet the bottoms of her legs. Her eyes were sleepy from a fitful night of rest. She tried to fall back asleep.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The world was illuminated with the light of day, morning well on its way, gray and misty from the steadily falling rain.

"Come on…"

She watched, listened for any signs of it letting up. The puddle had grown deeper. Nature seemed to be forcing her out.

She stood beneath a tree, arms crossed, driven out from her place of shelter by the encroaching flood water. Giant globs of water dripped on her from limbs high above. The river was swollen, turbulent and muddy, roaring, its level growing higher up the bank. Little streams flowed down the ridge like tiny waterfalls. She gazed up at the white, overcast sky visible at the top. The prospect of getting captured still remained. She got going again.

The ground was soft and muddy and there were fallen tree limbs everywhere. The wind was gone, but the rain continued, less than before, but still steadily. She slogged through the wet forest world, boots sinking into the soggy soil, her clothes soaking wet. Her hair ribbon had long since come undone and she had been unable to retie it, her hair now stuffed down shirt so as not to get caught on bushes. She proceeded slowly, there being nowhere to go.

"I should have listened to father."

She began, again, to reflect on her failure to use the letter to overthrow Zuko.

"I could have waited to deal with mother. At least I would've had some sort of life…"

_The metal door locked shut behind Zuko; the hinged viewport creaked closed; privacy at last. A thousand butterflies fluttered in Azula's stomach. She showed her father a hardened gaze and uncomfortable posture, hoping she would appear confident and angry, that he wouldn't ask her the questions she dreaded: why was she in a straitjacket? How could she lose to Zuko? Did he know why? Of course he did. Her insides turned waiting for him to speak._

_Her father smirked. "How fortunate that events have transpired to put us together," he said in a low, shrewd voice from across the bars of his cell. "It's good to see you again, my daughter," he said loudly, moving closer to be right up to the bars. It was a pitiful sight to see her once proud, able father, feeble, in rags, shimmying across the floor, hair fallen across his face, a mess._

"_I know why Zuko has brought you here," his voice returned to a low whisper. She leaned in closer. "I suspect you don't care about you're her fate as much as he does?"_

_He was asking her. _

'_Where did she go? What did she do to grandfather?' She had always wondered._

"_No," she answered._

_The corner of his mouth curled upward. "Then don't worry about the past, my daughter, I have a way that we can solve the problem of your brother forever…" _

_He explained the letter, what it would mean for her, who she would show it to, and how._

"_Do not let Zuko find out about the letter," he warned. "Do not let him find your mother, either. She will defend him and contest the letter's truth. Lead your brother astray, blame me for the wrong information, and wait until you are secure in the palace and then strike. I don't think I need to remind you that failure is not an option this time..."_

_She swallowed. "Where is mother, anyway?"_

_Her father looked at her suspiciously. _

"_How do I know where to keep Zuko from?"_

_He considered her question. He seemed hesitant about telling. "Her home town of Hira'a is her most probable location, but she might not be there anymore."_

_She felt unsure. Why didn't he reveal this long ago? Why now? She believed him, but… "Why wasn't this revealed sooner?_

"_And throw into the question the legitimacy of my real daughter?" He stressed._

_She let out a quiet, deep breath._

"_There is a right time for everything. Now, go and take what is rightfully yours…" _

"He trusted me," her voice faltered.

She returned from the memory.

"And he shouldn't have."

Her face twisted into a grimace as she imagined the disgust her father would feel when he found out. She felt gray and gloomy like the world around her.

She wasn't paying attention to where she was walking. At the base of this long hill she was walking down appeared a stream, not very wide, flowing rapidly. The rain water rushed down the hill past her in small torrents, pushing aside the gunk and eroding the mud around many flat, low-lying rocks and subtle roots, many she did not see.

Her trailing foot caught on a root and she tripped forward. She reached out with both arms to catch herself, but her left arm crumpled painfully under her weight and she fell nearly unstopped into the mud.

"Ewugh," she groaned, lifting her hands and seeing them covered in icky black stuff. Her chin had just pressed into the mud. She was a total mess, her whole front side covered.

"Rrrraaah!" She punched her right fist into the ground and fired a jet of flame, infuriated by the mess she had avoided for so long. "I got so far!" More muck splashed on her from the blow. She wiped her face with the back of her mud-covered hand. She was ashamed.

She sighed and rose to her knees, feeling the weight of the mud tugged on her shirt. _I'm not going to make it. _She bowed her head. She was losing sight of the struggle; a light at the end of a dark tunnel, growing smaller, listened to the stillness of the pattering rain. She sensed that something was near. She looked up.

Across the stream, hanging from a tree up high was the flutter bat, staring at her. It didn't say anything; it didn't need to. It just stared at her, probably waiting for her to change her mind, or another indignant response.

She wasn't going to give it that this time.

_Where do I go? _She admitted to it.

"_Follow this water," _it soon answered. _"That way…" _It turned its head ever so slightly to the direction up stream. She followed the flooded creek with her eyes until it disappeared out of sight among the trees. She turned back to the spirit.

_Who told you to help me? _She asked dully. Even her thoughts sounded deflated.

"_A friend."_

_Whose friend? _She asked.

"_My friend."_

_Who? _She pressed._ Their name?_

The bat didn't answer right away. _"… I don't know."_

She groaned, tweaking the bridge of her nose. "Why is this thing so dumb?" She muttered under her breath, looking away from it. Or, was it trying to trick her? She put the back of her hand to her face and shook her head. _I don't know; it hasn't left me, but they haven't found yet me either. This thing is following me for some reason. Why…?_

She wasn't getting any closer to freedom by ignoring this spirit's help, but trusting it could be her weren't getting any better; this was the only thing that signaled a chance of escape. She pondered her dilemma. She had no choice. She looked back up at the spirit.

_Tell the Avatar… That I've-. _The words stuck to her tongue._ …Given up. _The bat listened. _Tell them,_ _my brother, too, that… that I won't fight. You can lead them to me... I'm done._

The bat didn't respond.

_Well?_ She asked, looking it directly in the eyes.

The bat was quiet. After a moment of ongoing silence, _"No,"_ the word resounded in her head. _"That is not safe for you."_

She blinked. _You've spoken to the Avatar?_

The bat looked back at her, expressionless and still. _"Yes," _It said simply, in its squeaky voice._ "I have told it nothing."_

She was stunned. Her deception of the creature into giving away its true intentions had worked, a dangerous move, but its answer was not what she had expected. Was this thing really out to help her? Was it keeping her enemies from her? It seemed to be hiding something...

"_Do not go to the Avatar," _it said, only needing a corner of her eye to speak. That disturbed her. She turned back to it. "_Follow this water; that way," _it again turned its head slightly up stream._ "When you come to the rocks, go inside. I will meet you later. I cannot fly in rain."_

She looked up the stream. _How far? _She asked.

"_Many trees."_

_Why am I going there?_

"_Shelter."_

_And what about tomorrow—what then?_

"_I will take you to where you need to go."_

It was too good to be true. Maybe it _was_ true.

She nodded and broke eye contact with the spirit. For some reason this thing was helping her and it wouldn't say why. Maybe it really was just a benevolent forest spirit, or maybe it was something else. She could always just kill it, turn on it when it least expected it; it didn't look invulnerable, then again…

She got to her feet and walked a short ways forward to clean herself off in the water, the spirit bat watching her. She turned, gave the spirit one last look, and began making her way up the stream.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Evening had come, the air cool and misty and the light dim and blue. The rain had slowed to a drizzle. She had been following the creek for hours, twisting and turning through the trees, stepping over boulders and through mud. There had been no "rocks" that looked like a shelter. She was tired and growing weary of the coming night.

_I'm getting away from the river. Where is it taking me, to a road?_

Had the bat overestimated how far she could go? She began to hear the roar of rushing water. A cliff appeared ahead, tall and green with moss, reaching higher than the trees, with a sizable waterfall spilling out from a ravine down its middle into a large pool at its base. The water roiled and swirled in the pool before spilling away into the rest of the stream that she walked along now. The beach around the pool was dark with mud and sand, strewn with logs and other forest debris as well. To the right of the beach, a few steps away from the water, was a large pile of stones in the shape of a dwelling.

_That must be it!_

As she approached the pile, it appeared dilapidated, stones having fallen from the sides and covered in vines. The vines had flowers on them; blue and subtly translucent. She had seen them before.

"What a minute," She stopped."This isn't spirit stuff is it?"

The swirling pool was glassy in the low light and appeared very deep, eerily so. She was reminded of the spirit ponds. She considered avoiding this place; what if this was a ploy for a forest spirit to take revenge on her and the spirit bat was just a pawn in its plan!? She still hadn't learned what she had seen in the raised her hands defensively and scanned around, the words of the bat replayed in her mind.

_"No… Not safe for you."_

_ "I've told it nothing."_

She lowered her hands. If another spirit was so intent on getting rid of her, why would it go to all of this trouble keeping her alive?

_Maybe I am being too paranoid._

She took another hard look around. Who built this little temple? If that's what it was. Why was it where? She shook her head. _It's probably just a shrine_ _for some forest spirit that doesn't exist. _She paid attention to its poor condition. _Or else it would be in better condition_.

There was a person sized hole in one of the sides that appeared to be the entrance. She walked toward the crumbling stone structure and stood just outside the entry. It was a pitch dark inside. She took a careful peek in.

"No! No, no, no, no…!" She turned and walked away quickly, having felt her face just inches away from a mess of spider webs and feeling there was much more inside. She was desperate for relief from the rain. She stopped a short distance away and proceeded to blast a continuous stream of blue fire through the entrance to destroy all of the creepy things inside. Orange fire and smoke billowed from the cracks between the stones. The fire poured from her closed fist... She probably took longer than she needed to; she enjoyed the feeling that destroying things with her fire brought her. She waited for the fires to burn themselves out and the smoke to clear. _Let's try this again. _Lighting a fire in her hand this time, she walked inside.

It was empty, just four walls and a ceiling, with holes where rocks and mortar had fallen away and charred vines now filled. The floor was made of flat stones, wet from the rain, bumpy from encroaching roots, and against the back wall sat a single flat stone with nothing on it. Maybe she had burned whatever had been there; the air was still smoky and black ash coated everything. Other than that, it was just a stone dwelling and I felt enclosed enough to be shelter. She positioned herself between the altar and the back wall, facing the entrance. _So, I just sit here and wait for the bat. How long could that take? _It hadn't even stopped raining. She wondered what it had in mind for her.

The muted roar of the waterfall was peaceful. A feeling of calm came over her, like when she had come across that field of flowers. Her eyelids were heavy, the sleepless night catching up to her. Before long, she was slumped in the corner fast asleep.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

In the middle of a dark forest, an orange light glowed from a decrepit stone structure.

"… _Heaven has granted the Fire Lord and their descendants the divine right to rule based on their ability to rule well and justly... If a Fire Lord is ever defeated or overthrown, it is a sign that they lost the mandate of Heaven..."_

_ What a lie. _Her eyes tightened into a glare. _I would have been just._

She was sitting in the back corner, knees drawn to her chest. The rain had stopped. Now it was night and the air was cool with mist and filled with the chorus of countless peeping frogs outside. How long had she been asleep? It was light when she lied down and dark when she awoke. Her exhaustion had gotten the best of her and she had lost track of the spirit bat. Now she was having second thoughts.

Her attention was on a little orange flame that danced and flickered on the stone floor in front of her, its dim light pushing weakly back against the oppressive darkness. It didn't bring her any warmth; it was her only company in what felt like her final moments.

She had decided to trust the spirit bat and it led her here. What was this place, just an easy spot for Zuko to find her, shut up in these walls? The bat could be leading them here right now in its clever deception. She was angry to be even wondering about its motives; why couldn't it just be trying to help her!?

She let out a cold, shuddering sigh. She imagined how it would happen; their voices outside, Zuko coming through the entrance. It would definitely be the end...

Or, maybe, the bat really was trying to help and this was a shelter, but how many more days could she last out here, before she was injured even worse, attacked again, or her wound consumed her? She felt a queasy.

Whether it was a few hours, or a few days, her end was drawing near; she could feel it, iciness in her veins, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Had she ever believed in Heaven's will? She learned it, used it; it explained why her family ruled and not others. She never had a reason to doubt it, until now. Now it couldn't possibly be true. _'Mandate of Heaven',_ she scoffed._ I know what it really is: a way to scare people into cowering to a new leader. How can you fight, 'the universe'? How can you fight 'destiny?' _She thought of her own confrontation with Long Feng and how the "divine right to rule" utterly crushed him_. I know what life's really about: talent, and skill, reputation, and if you have none, you lose... _

She felt the warm glow of confidence welling in her, that even in her last moments she still had the power of the truth._ Who leads has only ever about power; the strongest, the fastest, the smartest… _She blinked quickly, her vision growing wet. _And I was neither!_ The tears fell silently. She bowed her head into her arms.

"How did I think I could survive this?" She sniffed and lifting her head up, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "That, somehow, I could make this work?" She listened to the quiet, the emptiness around her. The light of the flame flickered in her eyes.

_I'm going to die out here… Aren't I?_

She imagined wandering out here until the very end, lost in the wilderness, all the horrible things that could still happen, _would_ happen, the endlessness of it, the crushing uncertainty, all the pain and the sickness she didn't want to bare. She hugged her knees close. _I don't want to feel that._ She recalled the cliffs she passed on her way here; she thought of the sureness, the security of this little shelter, of just staying here and waiting for the end.

She closed her eyes. "I don't have to go on."

She felt a familiar presence. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the outline of a person standing on the other side of the room. She rolled her eyes. _Of course she'd come now._ She averted her eyes away from the mirage. "I know you're there, _mother._"

"Mother?" Replied a masculine voice, sounding lightly offended. "Look up, Spark."

_GASP! _Jets of flame burst from her hands and the little fire exploded like a volcano, coloring everything blue.

"Whoa! Azula, it's me!" The man beckoned as waves of blue fire tore past him.

"I WON'T be TAKEN ALIVE!" She roared into action; her final fight. What she saw, _who_ she saw stopped her cold in her tracks.

The flames fell from her hands; her mouth fell open. "It can't be..." Slowly, as what she was seeing took shape in her mind, the flames evaporated; the fire settled back down and began to die. The man across the room smiled softly back at her, looking slightly unsure, but standing his ground. Her fear turned to confusion, confusion to unbelieving, unbelieving to... She shook her head. _It can't._

The man just smiled at her. "Hey, Azula," Lu Ten said, the light falling away around them. "It's great to see you again…"

The orange fire relit. The room was again filled with light.

Azula was staring at her dead cousin. He was dressed in simple clothes and his hair was pulled into a topknot with a Fire Nation emblem band. She studied his face; the broad chin, thin lips, the black sideburns. It was the face she remembered. She realized what was happening. _Sigh._ _How could I be so foolish?_ Her face became stone and she returned to her spot in front of the fire, ignoring the hallucination.

Lu Ten was puzzled; he didn't quite expect _that_ reaction. No matter, though; he knew he had a challenge ahead of him. Just seeing his cousin was enough to make his spirit glow.

"You probably don't think I'm real," he said. "That's okay; I don't really know how I'm here either." He chuckled quietly. He looked to see if it had any similar effect on her. It didn't.

"Well," he continued. "I don't know how I can convince you. I just know that, one moment, out of nowhere, I saw you. You were standing in a forest, of all places, and I was looking up at you. I didn't know what I was seeing at first, or who, but then it hit me: it was you! Older, in the real world! I couldn't believe it, I was so happy..." he trailed off, relieving the moment. "But," his tone shifted. "Something was wrong. You saw something, it scared you, and you fled, like you were running from something. I was horrified. I tried to see where you had gone. That was when I knew why I had seen you. I knew had to find you again and help you in any way that I could. In fact," he smiled elf-consciously, reaching toward the back of his head. "I think I did find you again, but I scared you away. Sorry about that."

Azula's brow rose. _The man in the river?_ She listened more closely.

"Azula," he said urgently, having delayed long enough. "I need to know, are you in danger right now? Tell me, just say 'yes', and I can help."

Lu Ten observed her face, looking for a change, hoping for a response. He got nothing. Azula remained still and her gaze was fixed on the fire. It was like he wasn't even there. She looked irritated as well. He sighed.

He wasn't angry, just worried. Maybe she was disturbed by his sudden appearance? People don't usually see the ghosts. He took a moment to look around where she was: a cave? No, there were openings in the walls. That wasn't good; the light could be seen from the outside. Her clothes were also torn and dirty. There was sadness written on her face and something didn't look right about her left arm. Something _wasn't_ right; it was horribly injured!

_After all these years, had she really followed in my footsteps?_ His concern grew as he pictured his cousin at war. _I have to reach her, but it's no use if she won't listen. _He thought again about the sadness he saw in her, but also of what she had been considering when he arrived. _I think I need to take a different approach. _Lu Ten came forward slowly and sat down by the fire her.

Azula shuddered; it made a sound when it moved_._ The mirage was now only a few feet away, sitting across the fire from her, looking like a real person, close enough for her to feel its gaze. This didn't feel like the usual hallucination of her mother. She was deeply bothered. _What's going on…?_

"If you're meaning to hide," Lu Ten said. "I'd put out the fire; the light makes you stand out." The fire stayed where it was. "But you probably knew that." He looked away for a moment. It felt odd to remind her of that.

"You know," looking back at her. "I always saw you and Zuko as my sister and brother." His voice was pensive with the return of many memories. "I was a lot older, and you were very young, I'm not sure why my parents only had me... But… I really enjoyed having you two around." More memories probably than she remembered.

"One time," he began to recall. "When you were learning to walk, you kept falling over, but you _insisted_ nobody help you. You were like that for some reason," he pondered. "After a hard fall, and this was outside at the palace, Zuko tried helping you up, but you protested and when he wouldn't stop-" Lu Ten started to chuckle. "You zapped him! Somehow! It was hilarious, all the sparks flying off you; you were like a flint rock being struck! I don't know how you did it, but poor Zuko, he was so upset. I couldn't stop laughing..." He laughed quietly himself. Azula was feeling increasingly disturbed as the hallucination's behavior was becoming more and more real.

"I started calling you 'Spark' after that," he finished the tale, his own gaze falling to the fire. "It turned out to be a good name for you…" He was getting lost in the memories.

"You always hated losing. Heaven help me if ever you found out I let you win at _anything_, especially playing soldier. That's what you really liked to do with me. You wanted to know if it had been 'real'. Heh, 'real'," he mused darkly, knowing what it was really like. "Yeah… You always liked the military stuff..." His then face lit up from recalling something particularly special.

"I remember the last thing you said to me before I left. You said, that when you grew up, you wanted to be a soldier just like me, and I said, that when I came back, I would share with you _all_ of my stories." He sighed. "I never came back."

He realized his mistake. He lifted his gaze and looked at his cousin. "I'm sorry. That's just my last memory of you."

A furrowed brow and a quivering lip showed on Azula's now angry face and Lu Ten could swear there were tears in her eyes. She looked even more miserable than before. He regretted bringing up such a painful moment, but at least he could tell she was listening.

"You don't have to believe I'm real," he assured her, firmly. "Just _listen _to me and maybe you'll hear something that'll help." He considered his next words.

"I know what you were thinking of doing. Don't do it. _I know_ what it's like to die before you're ready; you think of all things you didn't do, all the mistakes you're leaving behind, who you're leaving… I don't want you to ever know what that feels like, not very long time. Now, I don't know what's been happening. I'm sure you have your reasons, but," he pointed at her. "_I know_ you can make it."

He paused, and continued.

"I sent someone to help you," he said with a warm smile. "It should look like a flutter bat." Azula's eyes widened slightly. Lu Ten noticed. "It found you right?" He paused, giving her chance to respond. "… You should follow it; it'll help you any way it can, take you somewhere safe. That's actually why you're here; I asked it lead you to somewhere I could meet you. I don't know where this place is, but it does. If there's anything in this forest that can help you, it can."

"I know there's no certainty," he admitted. "I don't even know what the problem is, but, clearly," he pointed at her injury. "You're not okay. If you need the bat's help, it's there for you. Something tells me, though," he eyed her over. "That you don't have the will to take it. Now, what can _I _do? If your life is in danger, I think I can do a little bit more for you." That's as much as he'd say about that. "But, I don't know if it is; _you_ have to tell me. So, what _are_ you doing out here, Azula, and why are you," he searched for the right words, "So sad?"

Azula remained quiet. Slowly she began to shake her head, as if saying 'no' to herself. She put her legs down and crossed them and rested her hands on her thighs in closed, tight fists, appearing very uncomfortable. Her mouth was open slightly, like she was about the speak, but the words not coming.

"You're dead," she finally said, her voice dull. "You can't be real."

He was stuck. He looked away to think and noticed a small rock on the floor beside him. He picked it up, held it out in front of him, and dropped it on the floor in front of his cousin. _Plack!_ Azula flinched, but her confused appearance and ongoing silence didn't change.

"Come on, Azula, before some Earth Kingdom soldier gets you!" Lu Ten begged, his frustration finally getting the best of him, but still keeping his voice hushed. "Don't stay here and die! I was an officer too," he motioned toward himself. "I can give you advice. There's bound to be a squad of Fire Nation scouts you can get to. You can't be _that_ far away from the front."

Azula was taken aback. "What?"

Lu Ten was surprised by the sudden change. "You're in the Earth Kingdom, right?" He spoke slowly. "On the battlefield? Something's gone terribly wrong and now you're running for your life?"

She was stunned. "N-no." She turned toward the image of her dead cousin and stared at it, bewildered, her eyes searching its face.

"Well," Lu Ten said. "Then what?"

She knew people paid respects to the ghosts of their dead ancestors, in ceremony, but not for real! She had never seen an ghost, well, an actual one. This was the 'Forgetful Valley', though, and it was clearly a place for spirits. Could this really be the ghost of her dead cousin…? "You're dead," she repeated, feeling shame, reminded of all the other times the vision of her mother felt real. "How can you be here?" Her eyes were shifted away.

"I don't know," Lu Ten answered gently. "I really don't. All I know is that I saw you in danger, from the other side, and I came to help."

"That doesn't answer the question."

There was anger in those words. "I don't know how to answer it then," he replied, unfazed.

"Pfft," she sounded. "Of course it doesn't." _It's in my head._

"Look, Azula," he tried not sounding short with her, but remained firm in his tone. "Help is…" he waved his hand, thinking of the right word. "Delivering itself to you and it doesn't look like you have much of a choice about it. I _wish_ I could just tell you to trust the spirit I've sent that's and leave knowing you'll be okay, but I _can't _because I don't think you're going to accept its help. I think you've lost the will to fight and I need to help you bring it back."

Azula remained looking irritated and unsure, reminding him so much of when she was little. He leaned in toward her, trying to get a look at her face, her head turning slightly away. "Maybe it would help if you looked at me," he smiled.

Her eyes searched the floor. Her gaze turned up to him. Their eyes met. Her lower lip quivered. She looked quickly down and rested her forehead on her hand, frowning. "I don't understand," her voice was weak. "You're dead."

"There are lots of things in this world you don't understand," he said nicely. "This is just one of them."

She ran through all the memories of her cousin that she had. "I almost forgot what you looked like."

"Don't worry about it, Spark," he assured "I didn't recognize you much either." He chuckled, followed by another spell of silence between them. "So," he leaned in again. "Is this my cousin finally deciding to talk to me?" She didn't indicate otherwise.. "Alright, Spark!" He reached over and patted her on the knee. "It's great to see you again!"

She flinched, but accepted it.

"You're all grown up now."

"You said you could help me," she said. "How?"

Lu Ten was glad to hear the question. "By convincing you not to kill yourself for one, maybe convince another spirit to help. I don't know, you're going to have to tell me what's going on, Azula. If not the Earth Kingdom you're running from, then what?"

What could she possibly tell him? Was it really him? How could she explain everything to the ghost of her cousin? Lu Ten was waiting. After a length of silence, she finally said it, "Zuko."

"Oh." Lu Ten was at a loss. He fell silent. "You two fought for the throne, didn't you?" He spoke again. "One of you couldn't accept the other winning."

She glared at the ground.

"I'm guessing you were the one who lost."

"Yes," she muttered.

Lu Ten grew alarmed. "Zuko isn't trying to _kill you_ is he!?"

"No."

"Imprison you? Why are you running from him?"

She was growing uncomfortable. She didn't want him to know, not about the agni kai, not about the asylum, her mother, _especially_ _not that._ _What would he think of me; would he despise me?_ Real or not, she didn't want what few memories she had of him to be ruined.

"You've been gone for too long," she croaked. "You wouldn't understand."

Thankfully, he didn't press her. "You're going to have to go into hiding then, Azula."

"Doesn't it look like I'm trying?"

"Then, you'll have to get in contact with someone who will represent you." He wasn't wasting any time.

"There's no one," she said.

"No one?" He didn't believe that. "What about your mother, your father?"

"Not around."

His eyes widened. "… Dead?"

"I don't know." She was growing frustrated; she just wanted to know what she had to do.

"What about my father?" He suggested hopefully. "Certainly he'll stand with you."

She took a deep angry breath. _"Especially not him!"_

Lu Ten fell quiet. She looked at him with sad, furious eyes. "He _believes_ in Zuko's mess," she rued. "He's as much as of my enemy as Zuko…"

Lu Ten looked shocked.

"You've been gone," she shook her head. "Uncle Iroh is no help to me."

"Tell me," Lu Ten insisted.

Azula's countenance turned dark. For the first time, she was revealing this to someone. "I'm not his _replacement_ of you. I know that's how he sees me; Zuko's his new son ever since you died. He falls apart when you die," she began talk faster and her voice to rise. "Abandons the siege, the thousands under his command, and his country, and everyone just accept him back? Like it was NOTHING!?" She fanned her right arm out to the side expressively and had a bewildered, furious look on her face. "He sides with our_ enemies _and gets his favorite on the throne, but what about me?" She placed her right hand on her chest indicating herself and stared at him. "_I_ didn't fall apart when you died, _I_ wouldn't have abandoned the siege, _I conquered Ba Sing Se-"_

Her voice cracked, her throat tightened, her chest started to heave. She turned away. Lu Ten silently waited.

"I conquered Ba Sing Se," she croaked through a voice choked with tears. "And nobody cares."

It was a lot for Lu Ten to hear. "I… I didn't know my death affected you so much." It killed him to see his cousin like this, to learn that things had gone horribly wrong, even if it was just pieces. "Are Zuko's soldiers searching for you right now?" He asked calmly.

"I don't know." Her voice was rough. "Probably." She sniffed and wiped the tears. "They might think I'm dead. I will be soon."

He especially didn't like that last part. "It sounds like a lot of bad things have happened since I've been gone. I guess... I guess I can't speak for my father anymore, but," Lu Ten made sure he sounded as gentle as possible. "I think, Azula, to explained my father, that, as we get older, our perspective begins to change and we start to care about things differently. I know mine has, being where I am now. "I'm glad my father cared about me," he tried sounding positive, giving her an example. "But, I'm not sure I'm happy with everything else. I believe you. I'm sorry my father is no help." He had to rethink things now. He thought of something that lifted his spirit.

"Thank _you_ for not letting my death get _you_ down."

"So what?" She grumbled.

"So, you can bend blue fire, and you're clearly strong enough to last this long against a Fire Lord."

She was irritated. "What does it matter-"

"It matters," he butt in, "Because it means you have what it takes to get out of this." She went quiet and slouched as her dead cousin lecture her.

"The Azula I knew would _never_ have accepted losing. Something tells me that's at work here…" His tone was that of someone haughty in their knowledge of something secret.

Azula looked horrified and betrayed. "You think this about my _pride_?" New tears formed in her eyes, of anger.

"Isn't it?" He asked. Azula's mouth fell ajar and her gaze drifted away from him. Lu Ten was alarmed. "Hear me out, Azula!" He urged, seeing he was losing her. "I think I know what you have to do." She was frowning severely, looking hurt as well. Slowly, her attention came back to him, barely. Lu Ten felt he was holding on by a thread.

"Let me ask you something, Azula. Do you think that Zuko can rule the Fire Nation on his own?"

She was bewildered. "What?"

"Is he good enough to be Fire Lord?"

She was puzzled. She began to consider it.

"Well?"

"No, maybe, I don't think so."

"He might not be." He shrugged his shoulders. "Not everyone is. Is there no way you can find a place in his rule?"

She looked at him like he had a thousand heads. "There is _no_ chance of that happening. I don't want to help him _or_ the Fire Nation if they all stand with him. He's undoing everything!"

"'If?'" He repeated skeptically. "You know everyone supports him?"

"I know enough."

"So if Zuko is so wrong for the Fire Nation, and you so much better, why give up?"

"Because I don't care about them anymore."

"Forget about everyone, Azula. Forget about Zuko, too. In fact, just forget about him. I'm talking about _you. You_ think that what's best for _you_ is to _die_ out here?"

She didn't answer.

"Let me ask you another question: why did you want to become the Fire Lord anyway?"

Why would he ask that? "Because," but when she went to say, it wasn't so clear. "Because…" She had to think. "… I was good enough. I was a powerful bender, and I knew history, and was smarter than Zuko. I would have made the war worth it," she said that with conviction. "I would have been the greatest leader in Fire Nation history."

Lu Ten nodded. "None of that's still true?"

She mulled the question.

"I'll ask again," Lu Ten said. "You think what's best for you and for the Fire Nation that _you know is out there_, the Fire Nation _I died for_, is for youto die,here, kill yourself even," he waved his hand. "Instead of swallowing your pride," he clenched his fist. "And _finding a way_ to make all those things happen?"

The dark clouds on Azula's face began to clear. Her mind was a flurry with new thoughts. She was interrupted when she heard Lu Ten express amusement.

"What's so funny?" she asked, seeing him smiling and happy.

"Nothing, I just have a good feeling about you now, I think everything is going alright now." Lu Ten liked what he was seeing in his cousin. "So, you can bend blue fire," he said, getting off the grim topics. "How long have you been able to do that?"

Azula's mood lightened from the question. "A couple of years," she said flatly, still preoccupied and feeling drained.

"Wow," he was impressed. "How old are you?"

"16."

His eyes widened. "Geez… You mentioned something too, about… _Conquering Ba Sing Se...?"_

"It's a long story."

"Then you'll have to tell me, sometime, when all of this is over." He threw in another chance to raise her spirits.

"You're leaving?" She looked up at him.

"No," he shook his head. "Not yet."

"Do other ghosts help people?"

"I think so." He didn't sound very confident. "But in different ways."

"What's it like where ever you are?"

"You mean death?" She nodded slowly. "I can't tell you that," he said kindly, expecting the question arrival at some point. "Just focus on living, Azula." He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. She felt the warmth of his touch. She looked at him, still feeling awkward, him being dead. "Besides, I don't think you'd like it here very much. Take it from a dead person," he winked.

Azula pursed her lips; she smiled and placed her forehead into her hand, shaking her head. "This doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't have to," Lu Ten shared in her happiness, finally getting her to smile. "Like I said, all you had to do was listen and maybe you'd hear something that would help."

"I still don't understand how you're here."

"Look," he said nicely. "I'm not in your head if that's what you're thinking. I'm really here." He patted himself, demonstrating his solidness. Azula again amused by the goofiness of her cousin. "You wouldn't believe any of this if you didn't think this was who I really was. All of this," he motioned with his arms, indicating himself. "Still exists in you, even if you don't see it. I'm as real as your memory of me."

Her fear of believing lifted away. She smiled weakly as every memory of Lu Ten no longer felt so distant. She looked and felt much better than when he had arrived. Lu Ten was relieved; his cousin was going to be alright

"I see that even your perspective is changing having spoken to me again." He watched his cousin as he leaned away from her. "If you could go back, to when I died, what would you have thought now?"

Her smile faded. Her gaze lowered as the unpleasant memory conjured itself. She remembered believing that his not returning home was just a part of war. Had she known what she was losing...

"I would've wanted you back."

She looked up. He was gone.

"Very funny,' she looked around, not convinced, a mischievous look on her face. As time passed, though, and he didn't reappear, she was once again alone with her small fire and the peeping frogs outside.

"That really happened, didn't it?" She drew her knees close, feeling unsettled by the sudden disappearance. It had vanished like a hallucination, but everything else…

"_There's lots of things in this world you don't understand…"_

… Felt real.

She took a deep breath and lowered her knees to sit more comfortably. The more the words of her cousin played in her mind, the less proud she felt about wanting this night to be her last.

"I'll keep going, Lu Ten," she said to herself, and to Lu Ten, if he was still listening. "I won't give up."

She would give the bat a chance. Tomorrow didn't seem so frightening anymore.

The spirit watched her from across the room, invisible now, having changed its shape again after taking on the form of the only thing it knew would bring peace to the human's turbulent mind; like a storm walking through its land. It observed her, witnessing her thoughts, feeling what she felt, and that was the lingering happiness it had brought to her. It was satisfied; its work was done.

The spirit departed from the stony shrine in silence and returned to its dwelling in the water, leaving the human to forge her own path and leave the heart ache behind. It had been a spirit that Azula spoke to, a spirit that can know the hearts and minds of anything it meets and do anything to change them, another reason why the 'Forgetful Valley' was so named…

* * *

_**Coming up next in "Avatar: The Truth", Chapter Six – The Mine…**_


	6. Chapter Six - The Mine

**Chapter Six**

**The Mine**

**Author's note: I'm curious about what you think of the length of the chapters. Let me know in the reviews or by PM!**

**Enjoy!**

Her eyes opened to darkness and the feel of cold stone. She sat up, afraid, disoriented, her heart racing, hands balling into fists and burning with fire.

Then she remembered last night.

"_Alright, Spark!" He reached over and patted her on the knee. "It's great to see you again!"_

"_I believe you."_

"_I know you can make it."_

The flames evaporated. She leaned back against the stone as the reunion with her cousin's ghost replayed in her mind; his voice, his touch, the gentle reassurances, some not so gentle. It was like waking up from a pleasant dream that wasn't forgotten, only it wasn't a dream; it was real.

"_I sent someone to help…"_

"_It should look like a bat…"_

"_If there's anything in this forest that can help you, it can."_

The need to escape still weighed on her. It was dark in the shrine and the light of day showed through the entrance. She got up and walked outside.

Sunlight sparkled through the tree tops as rays of light streamed down through the dusty air. Hanging upside down from a limb up high was the giant flutter bat.

"_Eat_."

She looked down; on the ground in front of her was a small pile of fruit. She picked one up and inspected it in her hand—there were holes and dark spots on its yellow skins, and tiny ants crawled all over it.

"Ew!"

She dropped it and slapped her hand against her thigh to get them off. The spirit bat stared at her, tilting its head slightly. For some reason she felt weary of offending it. She nudged the fruit across the ground with her foot, over to the water and submerged them, the ants floating to the top, and scrubbed them. Cleaned, she finally took one and brought it to her mouth. It was soft, juicy, and tasted like a peach. Never had a fruit tasted so good. She went to take another bite when she saw a half-bitten worm writhing inside her teeth mark. She'd have gagged, but contained herself for the sake of the spirit. She took another, difficult bite, trying hard to ignore what was falling into her stomach.

Fruit in hand and still eating, she looked up at the spirit bat. _So, _she began in her thoughts._ You've been talking to my cousin this whole time? _

The bat didn't immediately respond. _"Yes," _it answered.

She nodded her head. _Tell him 'thank you', please._

"_I am glad you are eating." _The spirit bat watched her consume the last piece of fruit it had flown far to gather for her. _"I've never known an animal to refuse to eat."_

She was puzzled. _I'm not an animal._

"_Yes you are."_

She rolled her eyes. _Best not argue with it. _She finished eating and washed her hands off in the water. She looked back up at the bat. _You said you would take me to, 'where I need to go?' _

"_Yes."_

_Okay, _she had to think._ The thing is… I don't know where that is. _The bat listened. _I need to get away from the Avatar, and my brother, his friends too- you said you've met them? _She rambled, unsure of what to tell it,

"_Yes," _it said._ "I've lead them elsewhere."_

She looked down. _Then you know exactly where they are. _Hopefully it wasn't lying to Lu Ten. Her cousin's voice was telling her to press on. She took a deep breath and made eye contact again. _I can follow you to other people, _she said with little confidence. _I don't know for how far; I'm injured. I don't know what you had in mind for me. I don't know how long I'll last…_

The bat was uncomfortable with what it had preferred to avoid. _"You won't burn me with fire?" _It asked.

Azula was taken aback. _No, of course not_, she assured.

"_Then raise your legs. I will carry you."_

"Uh…" Azula blinked from the bizarre image in her head. _What...?_

"_Your legs,"_ the bat repeated. _"The ones beneath your head."_

_Oh… _She glanced at her shoulders, understanding. She tentatively raised her arms out to their sides, wincing from the pain in her wounded, concerned with what was she imagined was about to happen.

_What are you planning? _She asked the giant spirit as it spread its great wings.

"_Carrying you to other humans," _it sounded none too happily.

Azula held still as the massive clawed creature swooped down at her. She tried to keep her eyes open, but a knot twisted in her stomach and she couldn't help but flinch at the expected moment of impact, only to feel a rush of air, hear the sound of beating wings above her, feel the bat's thick claws lock loosely around her shoulders, and the unnerving sensation of her weight lifted off the ground as she was taken into the air.

The bat flapped hard and rapidly, up and over the roaring waterfall and through the ravine, the river rocky, muddy, and rapid down below. She craned her neck to look around. Everything was in shadow, the green rock faces of the ravine rising high on either side. She shifted feebly in the bat's uncomfortable grasp; she worried how long she could stand it. She bent her right arm and grabbed hold of its leathery foot to take the strain off, but her left arm was left to ache. _Ugh, how long!?_ No response came.

Just as her arms began to turn numb and she considered doing anything to get the bat's attention, the bat climbed again, this time to the top of the ravine and over. The sunlight was blinding and her feet dangled above the tree tops. She felt even wearier of being spotted. Her stomach dropped as the bat suddenly descended, quickly, down through the trees and back into the shadows, until coming to an abrupt halt, the tempo of its wing beats faster and strained as it lowered her to the ground, its claws unlocking. She stumbled and clutched her left arm. The bat flew a short distance away and perched once more from a tree.

She groaned. _Glad that's over._ She straightened up and massaged her sore shoulders. As the pain subsided, she took in her surroundings. It was still all empty forest.

She was perplexed. _What's this? _She asked.

The bat's chest was heaving. For the first time it was no longer stoic and still.

"_Other humans,"_ it answered.

She looked at it funny.

"… _Behind you."_

She turned her head slowly around. Through the trees behind her, in the spaces between the trunks, was the sky. She narrowed her eyes. She walked toward the light, the bat watching her, the ground turned to bare rock as she passed through the tree line. She stopped just short of falling over the edge.

Her eyes widened.

At the bottom of the sheer cliff whose very edge she stood on lied an enormous trench, deep and broad, filled with buildings and giant machinery, rows upon rows of terraces lining its rocky sides, black with the luster of coal.

_A mine._

It was enormous, deeper than the cliff was tall, and it stretched on for what look like _miles! _She marveled at the sight; a sign of civilization at last. Multiple gigantic digging machines the sizes of battleships sat motionless, their circular end pieces pressed into the sides of the pit like sleeping beasts. Some white smoke poured from a few buildings, while much of the rest appeared eerily unoccupied. At the very bottom of the mine, she made out little moving figures.

_People! _

Her mind raced, both ecstatic and afraid.

_They can give me food and shelter, but what if they don't? What if Zuko has already gotten to them? What do I tell them…?_

As she pondered the encounter, a metallic screech broke the silence, sending a shiver down her spine. She turned around expecting horror. There was nothing behind her, only the flutter bat, hanging from its tree limb in the shadows. Taking another look at the mine, she peeled her attention away and walked back toward the spirit.

"_These are the closest humans," _its nasally voice sounded, its chest breathing slower. _"Are you happy with this?"_

She stopped several paces away from where the bat hung and tilted her head up. She considered its question. _Is there anywhere else where there are people- uh, 'humans?'_

"_Many more humans," _it answered. _"Much farther away; too far to carry you."_

_Then this is fine_, she said, staring sincerely into the eyes of the spirit who was sent by her cousin. _Really, thank you, for everything. _Her ordeal through the forest was at an end. _I couldn't have made it here without you._

"_Then this is where I leave you." _A wave of disappointment swept through her. "_I haven't eaten enough these past days helping you." _It began to spread its wings. _"Good luck human. I hope you find what you are looking for."_

She looked at it curiously. _Isn't this it?_

It dropped from its perch and took off flapping, up and out of the trees, away and out of sight, light and airy like giant butterfly, breaking eye contact for the last time. She felt the rush of the wing-beaten air past her face and watched until the last of its shadow disappeared. It had left so suddenly. She didn't get to say goodbye,

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, putting the forest behind her in her mind.

_It's time to leave this place. There's no going back. _

In this forest she had seen Lu Ten again.

She turned her attention to the mine and returned to the cliff face, taking cover behind a tree so she could observe the happenings below.

_What am I going to tell these people? _She watched the little black figures moving around the buildings and machines, seemingly busy at work_. A young girl showing up out of nowhere from the forest; that's going to look suspicious... _

There didn't appear to be very many of them. She had never seen a coal mine before; it looked like an ugly black gash across the green landscape. Surrounding mountains and bluffs hid her view of beyond. It was the just the mine and wilderness. _Do they all live here? _

_What are coal miners like, anyway? Peasants, no doubt; dirty and uneducated, probably proud of Zuko, too. _She was already beginning to feel hate for them.

… _But I need their help._

Unlike animals, people weren't afraid of fire. When she would approach them and say she needed them, she would really mean it. There would be no ruse or back-up plan to protect her; her arm ached, she was weak and she doubted her ability to fight even typical opponents. She would truly be at their mercy. She couldn't hide it.

… _Take off your mask. Only then will you see the beauty of your true destiny…_

She needed a story.

To the left, the cliff followed the perimeter of the mine, descending toward what appeared to be the entrance, many more buildings grouped there, on the opposite end of the marine. She had a long walk ahead of her. She'd come up with it along on the way.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Alright, let's see what the problem is…"

The man lay on the ground and shimmied on his back into the opening of the broken down machine. His coveralls, heavy cotton with pockets riveted at the seams, were frayed, torn, and stained with the colors of coal and other sludge. His feet stuck out of the opening, boots equally tattered and dirty, grumbling profanities as he wriggled his way into the pump's slimy interior.

"I hate going into these things." The hard iron inside was slick with algae, rust, and mud. Eventually he worked his entire body inside and stood up, bending a bit so as not to hit the piston above his head.

"Lantern!" He called.

A metal lantern with the flame already burning set down on the floor with a rattle. He picked it up and raised it to inspect two holes at opposite ends.

"Ah, heck!" He shouted.

"What?" His partner outside asked.

"One of the valves are broke!"

The man outside exclaimed a profanity.

"This is going take a while." He inspected the problem in the low light from the lamp; a ring of bolts needed to be removed, rusty and deformed, no doubt stuck to the iron they joined. "Get me the wrench first."

As he waited for his partner to hand him the tool, "You know, that's the problem with these things; they're so powerful they suck up everything until they break themselves."

"Hey!" His partner tapped on the metal outside, voice subdued. "Take a look at this."

"What?"

"Come take a look!"

The man slid unhappily back out of the cylinder. "What?" He asked his partner.

The other man stood, arms folded, looking at something. "Check it out," he whispered, n nodding his head in the direction up the hill.

In the distance walking toward them down the hill was a disheveled-looking girl, clothes dirty and torn, her front side stained with something dark. She was clasping her left arm. Her gait looked labored.

The man's partner raised his hand in greeting. The distant girl slowly raised her own in return.

The man's eyes were wide. He turned his head. "Boss!"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"So you're running away from home," said one of the well-dressed men, flanked by his aids. His arms were crossed and he leaned on one of the tables as he considered her tale.

"Yes," she said dully.

"And you were out there for how long, you said?" The other well-dressed man asked while he poured her a cup of tea.

She sat on a wooden bench, hunched over tiredly, elbows resting on her knees as their physician tended to her injured arm. She had been escorted across the black coal-covered yard into one of the buildings; the infirmary apparently. Her presence had drawn many stares and puzzled looks from the other workers. Word was bound to quickly travel about the strange girl who had arrived at their mine. Coming here didn't feel so safe anymore. Now she was surrounded by a group of curious onlookers, all men, apparently the top brass as most of them were cleaner than the grimy ones who had found her. They were all gathered in a half-circle in front of her, interested in what she had to say.

"Four days," she replied quietly to the man who had asked. "Ow!" She winced as the physician scrubbed her injured arm with a rough, wet cloth.

"How's it lookin'?" The mine's owner, the one sitting on the table, said to the physician.

The physician finished and dropped the blood-stained cloth into a bucket of water. "She needs to see a doctor in town," he said to the owner. "There's not much I can do here. It's amazing you even survived," he said, looking at her.

"I don't have to have my arm cut off do I?" Azula said frantically, turning to him.

"Not by me."

Alarm bells rang. Her mouth fell open and she turned visibly afraid.

"Easy on the young lady," the mine owner warned the physician, looking cross.

"My apologies, Miss," the physician said while she stared at him with wide, childish eyes and furrowed brow, partly to feign innocence, and partly from true fear.

"What I mean is," the physician explained. "I can't do anything more for you here; you did a good job burning it closed." He pointed at her black line. "I'm just a physician for the mine; one of the doctors in town can probably do more. You said you'd been drinking?"

The question took her mind off the disturbing thoughts. "Yes, from the river."

"Okay, good." His tone was brighter. "I'll get you some food then. You'll all watch her?" The others nodded their heads in silence. "Don't worry," the physician said to her as he got to his feet. "You'll be fine. It's good you got here when you did..." He turned and made his way out, feeling sorry her.

Silence fell between her and the group as the door closed. The man with the tea handed her the cup. She took it in her right hand.

"Well, little miss," the man leaning on the table said, breaking the silence. "I'm glad you made it through. I can assure you that you are in good hands here at the Wanzhang Hei coal mine," he stated confidently and directly to her. "One of my men can take you into town at the end of the day, and I'm sure one of the local shelters can take you in. I must say though…" He looked up and down her. "Those are some very _interesting_ clothes you have on." The eyes of the others fell onto her as well.

She tensed. _The gold, the armor, the yellow circle! _"Do you think they're valuable?" She looked up at him with curiosity and cluelessness. _Of course they are._ "I hoped to sell them."

He thought for a moment. "I don't know. Where did you get them?"

_Where, where, where…!? _"I sto-" She cut herself off, but they had all heard her clearly. "I _stole _them," she admitted and lowered her eyes. "From our theatre."

"Hmm…"

She tried to observe him out of the corner of her eye while keeping her head down. _Ugh! I thought nothing about my clothes, please, please…!_

"Alright, then," he said. He got up. "I have to get going."

_It sounds like he bought it._ She sighed silently. She lifted her gaze.

"You'll stay with her until Xhinji gets back?" The leaving man said to the other who had poured her the tea.

"Sure thing, Hiro," he answered, enthusiastically. "Also, I'll take her back to town with me. I'll have her see my doctor."

He nodded his head. "Good." His aides were also pleases; the task wasn't falling on them. The man turned and looked at her. "Miss, I wish you good luck." He gave a courteous gesture of goodbye and proceeded to leave with his posse behind him. The door closed and the room fell quiet again. She was alone with only one of them now.

"It'll be a while until the day's over," the remaining man said. "You can stay with the 'doc until then. You're lucky to have come across us; there isn't anything around for miles. How's the tea?"

She hadn't touched it. The air in the room was hot and stuffy, the windows open, but no breeze coming through. Her eyes were also strangely watery and burning. She blinked and rubbed them.

"It's the coal," the man said. "The dust."

"Oh." He was looking at her, patiently, waiting for her verdict. "The tea's fine." She wanted to keep him talking, feeling that silence would let his mind to wonder too much about her. "So…" She looked left and right around the room. "What is this place exactly?"

His chest swelled with pride. "You're at the Wanzhang Hei coal mine, the largest in the Fire Nation. At least, we used to be..."

She made herself appear as listening. _I know these people are my enemies if they find out who I am. Has Zuko been here and told them to keep an eye out? Where did the others go? Is this an oaf meant to distract me?_

"… Used to supply half the shipyards in the country, but, ever since Fire Lord Zuko ended the war, the Navy has cut back drastically. We have ideas though…"

_I can take him; he's old and doesn't look like a fighter. I can probably knock this wall down too, and then it's a long run back to the forest. Wait, no, I can't do that! I can't go back there!_

"… The military burns coal for electricity, so we know it can be done. If the entire country would do the same…"

_There were train tracks outside; where do they lead? But it's the Avatar and Zuko I need to run from. I'm surrounded by earth here. There's nowhere I can go. I'm stuck. Stuck…!_

She was beginning to cold sweat. "Hey," she said, shakily, interrupting his speech. He stopped and listened. "Is there anywhere I can… wash my face?"

"Yeah," he indicated behind him with his thumb. "There's a water basin outside. I'll take you to it."

He didn't seem too offended. "Thanks." They both got up and he led her outside back through the building, the other workers paying her little attention, having seeing her already.

He opened the door for her and the hot, humid, air rushed past her face. "It's over there." He pointed across the yard to another building where a couple of troughs were lined and a few other workers lingered. "After you," he offered.

She walked past him. The glare of the sun made her squint. The sky was mostly puffy clouds with spots of light showing through them, the sun poking through a break; the aftermath of the story. The ground was gravely and wet.

"Heck of a thing you made it through that storm last night," he said as walked beside her. He was several inches taller. "One of the pumps that keep this place from flooding just gave out a few hours ago."

She was turning her head frequently trying to observe her surroundings and locate the entrance she came through. He took it as her fascination with the gigantic machines and the abyss-like pit in the distance. "Yep, thirty million tons of coal a year at our height, forty-thousand people strong just a year ago," he continued to tell her about the mine. "Now we're down to just a thousand, since Hiro made the call." He shook his head slowly. "That wasn't a good day..."

They arrived at the troughs and stopped at one that wasn't occupied. Workers were gathered at the others, their clothes heavy coveralls and soiled with sweat and black grime, occupied in light conversations with each other while they filled canteens. She felt their baffled stares on her. They looked at the man she was with for answers; he waved them off; apparently an authority figure. They all returned to what they were doing, but she knew they were still wondering and she saw them shoot glances at her out the corners of their eyes.

"Alright," the man said, seeing as they were at the water she wanted.

She glared back at them. She turned her attention to the water; it had a grey tint. Of course, she didn't really want to wash her face, but now that she was her… she was sure it'd feel nice. She leaned over the edge of the trough…

… And saw her mother's reflection.

"Gasp!" She reared back and raised her right hand in a fist, drawing the attention of everyone.

_"See?" _The image said. "_I knew you'd make it! Keep going, my daughter, don't give up."_

"What's the matter?" The man came over and peered over her shoulder. She stared at the mirage. She began to cough and gag.

"Nothing," she faked the grimace of tasting something terrible. "A bug flew into my mouth."

"Hm," he sounded. "Be careful," he told her. The other workers rolled their eyes, some shook their heads.

She bent over the water again, the hallucination staring back at her, silent and smiling, and forced herself to bathe in its water.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The shadows of evening reached across the mine as the sun fell behind the mountains.

_Vreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!_

A piercing whistle blared. Workers began to file out in long droves. She watched them through dusty window, her fear of being turned over to her enemies never materializing. The door to the infirmary opened.

"Ready to go?" The man from before asked.

She was focused on the outside.

"Do you think we can wait until they're all gone?" She peeled her attention away to speak to him. "I don't want them to see me."

He took a deep breath. "Okay," he said. "But not too long."

"Thanks." He closed the door. She went back to watching.

A half hour passed and the crowd thinned. It was time to go. The doctor said goodbye, who had tied a sling for her and helped keep the boredom away in the hours of waiting.

_The doctor was treating a worker who had come in for a minor injury. She could tell he was curious about the girl in the room and overheard him whisper a question about it._

_ "She and her boyfriend were lured into the forest by a spirit," the doctor said matter-of-factly to the worker. "She thinks he was killed."_

_ The worker's mouth fell open. "My god!" He turned and looked at her with sympathy in his eyes, a middle-aged man, probably with children of his own. "That's awful!"_

_ She glared at the floor. Her mind raced to figure out what the doctor was doing._

_ "I shouldn't have said anything," the physician said quietly, returning his patient's attention to the bandage he was tying around his arm. Azula shot the doctor a puzzled, demanding look while the man's back was turned. The doctor's nose was down and he appeared oblivious, but then his mouth curled into a subtle smirk._

_ It dawned on her. She turned her away and couldn't help but smirk a little as well._

"Good luck to you," the physician said. "And remember the story we came up with."

She shook her head. "You know it's stupid."

"Hey, all three people believed it."

She rolled her eyes playfully.

"Alright, let's go," the man said, breaking up their banter and placing a guiding hand on her back. "See 'ya tomorrow," he said to the physician as they walked away.

The physician raised an outstretched hand to them. "Pick out a good wooden arm!" He continued to joke.

Her face turned white. The physician chuckled and returned to his infirmary while she feared what was yet to come.

They made their way up the slope to the entrance, passing the empty buildings that lined the way.

"You seem nervous," the man said.

She was shifting her head around, discreetly, watching the shadows and the hilltops. "Of course I am." She returned her head forward to reduce his suspicion. "I don't know what's going to happen."

"Don't worry," he tried to assure. "My doctor's good. I'm sure she can do something."

Her gaze fell toward the ground. Somehow she didn't think so.

They arrived at the top. Nearby was a long, open stable. Only a few carts remained with their dragon moose tied up close. She had seen it when she first arrived. To the left, the train tracks from earlier lead away into the trees, across the slope of the small mountain the mine was dug into, and she saw the spot where she had exited the woods. Flanking the tracks was a single dirt road, wide, muddy and scarred by wheel tracks, presumably the one they were going to take. They headed toward the stable. One of the carts had a small gathering of people around it.

"There he is!" One of the men called as they approached. "Took you long enough."

The rest were happy to see him. They were standing ready to go, bags in hand, one of them dressed in clean clothes, two of them in dirty coveralls.

"Is this her?" One of them asked, grinning. All their attentions turned to her.

She shot quick glances at all of them, bending her knees slightly and shifting her weight to her right foot, and pulling her right elbow in to her side. They all frowned, noticing something was wrong.

"Don't worry," the man said to her. "They're friends. They won't say anything." He was unnerved by her aggressive stance, but he stood by her. "Better give her space, guys," he told them. "She's had a hard time." They all nodded.

"Let's get going, then," one of them said.

They all moved to get into the cart. One of the men, a younger one, extended his hand to let her go before him. She paused, and then climbed up the ladder, taking a seat in the middle as close to the left side as she could, while the other two got into the back and the younger man next to her. The man who was helping her got into the front and took the reins. He flicked them and the beast started trotting, pulling them away down the road.

"So, where are you from?" The man sitting next to her asked, nicely, raising his voice above the clip-clop and noisy rattling of the cart. The others sitting behind listened in.

"Far away," she said shortly.

The man who asked was disheartened while one behind laughed.

"Don't bug her," the man helping her said to his friend. He leaned over and whispered something in his friend's ear. A look of horror fell across his face. He glanced at her, his stupid eyes on her as he gazed upon her sling and her unhappy face, until he turned away, silent, all of them, no doubt imagining the terrible fate they saw in store for her, but saying nothing about it. She was silent and cared nothing about speaking. She was anxious so close to these people. Her presence was clearly causing tension among them. All she could think about was Zuko and_ his_ Fire Nation, the threat of capture still hanging over her, and the dreadful procedure she could be facing. She glared at the passing road. She felt sick.

"Ever been to a city?" The man who was helping her asked, tilting his head over his shoulder to keep an on the road ahead.

His familiarity broke the awkwardness and for a moment her mind was taken off her fears.

"No," she answered. The interest of the others was piqued. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Kaoshiung," he said. "A _big_ city, one of the biggest. Ever heard of it?"

_Kaoshiung… Kaoshiung… _She wrinkled her nose thinking. _I think I've heard of it. Should I? _"I… think so?" She answered.

"Ha!" The man said, amused. "I'm glad you've _heard _of it. It's going to be a lot different from what you're used to." He sounded chipper. The others appeared entertained as well. She didn't like that. What was it, the idea of a "country girl", as they saw her, experiencing a modern city for the first time? She knew cities; she'd been to Ba Sing Se and New Ozai; she'd lived in the capital. They had nothing on her. She returned to her silence, waiting, planning ways to escape if needed, and trying to get comfortable on this noisy and bumpy cart, worrying about what lied ahead. They left her alone, eventually striking up a conversation amongst themselves, which she was not a part of, but kept her ears open for anything useful.

An hour passed and she began to feel cold, sensing her fate with a doctor was drawing near. She had to get her arm taken care of, but the thought of having it removed… she hunched over and tucked her arms in close.

The road and the tracks were gradually curving down and to the left as they followed a people-made cut in the hillside. Ahead, the trees started to thin from both sides of the road, the right sooner than the left, through which the gold of evening showed and the open hillside was visible. She saw houses. She sat up. _Is that it? _She shivered.

As the trees on the right passed, a full community of buildings came into view. She tensed. Rows upon rows of houses and other structures lined the hill and beyond, some made of white stone and mortar with the red ornate roofs she was familiar, the rest, built of wood and stacked close together along narrow stone streets that looked rough, uneven, and were crowded with people and markets.

"Is that it?" She asked, worry in her voice as her were eyes stuck to the poor-looking town in front of her.

"No," the man said, amused, the others snickering and smiling as the trees on the left cleared. He nodded his head to the other side of the road with a twinkle in his eye. "_That _is."

She looked over, cautious about what they had in mind for her to see. Her mouth fell open. They all laughed, the man less obnoxiously, but still deeply entertained, as they got to see the long-await look on the country girl's face as she gazed upon the entirety of a massive city lining both shores of a great crescent-shaped bay.

"I can't believe it…" she whispered aloud.

The man was pleased. "Yep," he said. "Kaoshiung, largest center of naval industry in the Fire Nation, and third most populous city."

_Not the capitol?_

"Sendai and Nagoya have us beat by about a million," the man next to her chimed.

She blinked. _A million…?_

"And we supply all the coal here," the man said proudly. "Just over there…"

Her eyes scanned the blocky behemoth before her. There were thousands, no, _tens of thousands_ of individual buildings that looked like pieces of a giant puzzle. Docks and piers lined the paved shores, with boats of all different sizes tied up at them and many more floating in the bay, like little black dots on the blue. In the distance, toward the middle of the crescent, the city bulged outward toward land where smoke stacks rose like trees out of a field of black and grey factories, a few of them belching white smoke. Connected to the factories, ahead of them, lining the water, were enormous square structures, skeletal and open like giant rib cages, inside them the shapes of half-finished, giant ships, and along piers, floating in the water, were completed ones. Their appearances were unmistakable; they were warships, massive ones; the largest of the fleet: the _Empire _-class. She realized what this place was, hearing a reference to it once before.

"This is where the battleships are built."

The others were impressed. "Yeah," the man said, looking over his shoulder to her. "Some cruisers, too."

"Used to," one of the other men grumbled. "I don't think we'll be doing that anymore." The others turned unhappy as well.

"The Navy also has a large base here," the man said. He pointed his finger past the shipyards to the opposite end of the bay. There another series of piers lined the shore, where rows of black ships with horned bows and red glass sat tied. She made out the red and black of a giant Fire Navy flag flying waving in the breeze. Finally! Something she was familiar with, that she felt comfortable, that she knew and could understand; the military.

The shock of this new view of the Fire Nation was tempered by the sight of her country's warships, whose sailors she knew how to command and whose power she once controlled. That was something these people around her knew nothing of. Only, it all belonged Zuko now.

The cart continued down the hill. Looking further throughout the city, past the buildings to the wilderness beyond, she saw no sign of the river, or any other river, she had been following, just endless forest for as far she could see.

* * *

**Coming up next in "Avatar: The Truth", Chapter Seven – The Doctor…**


	7. Chapter Seven - The Doctor

**Chapter Seven**

**The Doctor**

The wheels of the cart rattled over the cobblestones. It was only her and the man now, the others having been dropped off, as she was delivered to her dismal fate with a doctor, deep in this unfamiliar land. Buildings lined the street, none appearing high class, but not poor either. Some lamps were beginning to be lit by firebenders and down the street, the bay was visible. Other carts passed by, while the sidewalks were sparsely populated with walking people, none paying them any particular attention, save for passing glances. Nobody had recognized her in Hira'a, but she still kept her face down. There was nothing she could do to avoid being seen.

The man pulled back on the reigns, causing the dragon moose to let out an unhappy neigh and halt its trot. "We're here."

She turned; they were stopped in front of a large building on their right, two stories tall, made of wood and mortar, four windows wide, a door several steps up from street level.

"Doctor Izumi." He looked at the building as well. "She works evenings so we've caught her at a good time." He climbed off the cart with care as an older man would, and walked over to a vertical post to tie up his animal. She turned back around. She was taking deep breaths.

_I've made it. I've found a city and a doctor to take care of me. What am I going to do after? _She returned to that cold morning in the forest, when everything seemed impossible, and she imagined this very moment, hoped for it, and now here it was. It was time to face the reality of what the cost of this freedom would be; the consequences of a terrible wound.

_Crippled, an imperfect body, still on the run… I have nowhere to go. _Her chest was tight and she felt rooted to her seat.

"Hey."

A hand reached toward her. She turned quickly. The man was standing beside the cart on her right with his hand open. "It'll be alright."

She glowered away from him. _He doesn't know that._ She let out a deep breath and took his hand. She stepped down from the cart and onto the sidewalk.

Several people walked past them.

"Excuse me," one of them said as he maneuvered around her. She could sense she was drawing stares.

The air was warm, humid, and stagnant, and had a subtle tang of garbage. _Eugh, is this was this place smells like? _She grimaced. They walked together up the stoop to the doctor's office. He opened the door for her and they walked inside.

A bell jingled, the floor creaked under their weight, and several lamps burned for light on the walls. The man closed the door. At the end of the small room was a young man sitting behind a desk. He looked up.

"Good evening," he said pleasantly to the both of them. His face turned to mild horror upon sight of the girl's tattered, mud and blood stained clothes. "How can I help you?" He asked automatically, but his face showing that he already had an idea.

"She needs to see Doctor Izumi _now_," the man spoke first, pointing at her with his thumb. "It's an emergency."

The young man nodded and turned to her, eyeing her sling. "What's the problem?"

She hesitated; a new person to encounter. "My arm-," she stammered. She needed their help. "It's wounded, badly. I'm afraid it's infected."

"When did this happen?" He asked.

"A few days ago."

"What about the rest?" He motioned his hand toward and around her. "It appears you've been in some sort of… struggle?"

She considered what he may be wondering. "No… It's just my arm."

"Okay." He stood up. "I'll go inform the doctor. I think she's mending a broken leg right now. You can have a seat if you'd like." He beckoned towards one of the chairs and left through one of the other doors in the room.

The man offered for her to sit, but she declined, too nervous to. There was nobody else in the room. He waited patiently with her despite having brought her to what she had wanted. She didn't ask why.

_After I get this treated, I'm going to… I'm going… _Her mind ran into a wall. She could see nothing of the rest of this day let alone the next few _minutes_. She had never been to a doctor for something like this, just the times as a child when she was sick and the family physician came to see her. Images of surgeons' steel instruments played in her mind, grizzly and sharp, destructive to flesh. Her thoughts had never dwelled on what it was like when steel cleaved the body; now she was consumed by it. The sound of a door opening brought her attention back. She looked up. A woman dressed in a white robe with pink bands lining the sleeves and breast came walking in, followed by the young man.

Azula's eyes widened and she silently gasped, the woman's appearance that of an attendant from the asylum.

_It can't be. It can't be! There's no way…_

She watched the woman closely as she approached, presumably the doctor, who had a warm smile on her face.

"Hello," she said, focusing on the injured girl, but her eyes catching sight of the man beside her. "Nori," she said, stopping a pace away, placing the backs of her hands on her hips, and seemingly pleasantly surprised. "It's good to see you. It's been a while. How's your wife?"

He smiled. "She's been great, Izumi. She's been really well. It's good to see you too."

The doctor smiled back. "So, I see you've brought someone for me." Her attention turned to Azula. "Hi, I'm Doctor Izumi." She made the formal gesture and bowed her head slightly. "I'm told you've been injured?"

Azula studied the woman's face; white skin, a middle-aged look, long brown hair pulled tightly into a knot, "Yes," she said. "My arm," she slowly pulled her left arm out from the sling, revealing the torn sleeve and ugly black line of her wound.

The doctor narrowed her eyes a little and peered at it from a distance. "What did this?"

"A tiger," she revealed, there being no reason to hide it as she had truthfully told the man and the others at the mine. "I was attacked by a tiger in the woods."

"Really?" The doctor's eyebrows rose. "I'm glad you survived, and the burn?" She pointed to the black streak of charred skin.

"I burned it closed; I'm a firebender."

"And this happened a few days ago?"

"Yes."

The doctor continued to observe the wound. She didn't say anything further. Azula began to fear the worst. "Please..."

The doctor's eyes turned away from the wound and onto her.

"I can't lose my arm. I know people get amputated for this, but…" She trailed off, staring into the woman's neutral eyes. There was nothing she could demand of this woman, nothing she could force her to do. She frowned. She felt tears welling in her eyes. "I can't lose my arm."

The doctor's face didn't change. She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a flat wooden tab. "Tell me if this hurts." She touched one end of the tab onto the undamaged skin directly outside the burn and pressed.

Azula winced, but her face softened when the anticipated pain didn't come. "A little," she reported.

The doctor moved the tab to a new location, higher along the burn. "How about now?"

Her answer was the same. The doctor repeated the process a few times at different points until she drew the tab away.

"I don't think it's infected."

Azula's mouth opened.

"But it could be." She wiped the tab on the back of her clothes and returned it to her pocket. "I'm going to have to clean it out." She turned to her aid and gave him an order that included the word "surgery". He nodded and hurriedly left through a different door. She turned back to Azula. "I'm going to operate on you now. It won't take long and I think we can fix this before it gets any worse. If you'll come this way, please…"

It was happening fast. The doctor extended her hand outward and placed a guiding hand on her shoulder. Azula stepped forward slowly. She was overwhelmed.

_It might not be infected; I may not lose my arm; things might turn out better!_

She was both elated and afraid. The doctor walked close beside her, hand gently on her.

"You have a name?" The doctor asked humorously.

"'Rina'", she told her.

"Well, Rina, it's a good thing you got here."

"Oh, hey! Wait!" The man called from behind them. They both turned around.

"I need to get going," he said. "Thanks for taking her, Izumi, but she's also going to need a place to stay tonight and… for some time after."

The doctor looked at him puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"She's, uh, she'll tell you about it, but basically she's homeless and has nothing to her name. She needs help."

"Oh," the doctor looked at her. "That's fine. We can take her in."

_'Homeless and nothing to my name,'_ the words echoed in her mind as she followed every word.

"I'll also pay for everything."

She lifted her hand. "No, don't worry about. It's no problem."

"Alright," he finished, preparing to leave. "Good luck, Rina. It was nice meeting you. I'll stop by tomorrow to see how things have gone."

"Thanks," she said quietly.

He raised his hand in goodbye and left through the main entrance, while she and the doctor continued into the next room.

The doctor opened the door to reveal a short hallway with several doors on either side. The walls were wood instead of mortar, different from the institution.

"Aimi?" The doctor called.

A young woman stepped out from one of the open doors. "Yes?" She said, standing in the hall, her eyes on the doctor and quickly glancing at the person beside her. Her clothes were undecorated brown and maroon.

"This is Rina. I'm going to be operating on her and she needs to be out of these dirty clothes. Help her undress and get into a gown, then bring her in."

"Okay," the aid nodded her head. "If you'll come this way-" She came forward and directed Azula into the empty room next to her. The doctor walked away into another room whose door was closed and which Azula didn't get a chance to catch a peek inside. Azula turned her attention to this new person. She cooperated and stepped inside. The woman followed her in and closed the door behind them.

There was a wood table long enough for someone to lie on, two empty, flimsy chairs, and a small cabinet.

"You can undress here," the young woman said. "Just leave your clothes on the floor and then I'll bring a gown for you."

"I assure you I don't need help with this," Azula spoke over her shoulder to the woman standing behind her.

"Doctor's orders," the woman smiled. "I can turn around." She turned anyway.

"That's not what I meant." She began by lifting the sling up over her head and dropping it to the floor. She then sat down on one of the chairs and removed her boots, then her socks, pants, pauldron; each layer of clothing one at a time. She was slow and deliberate, face neutral as she suppressed her reservations over exposing her body to an unfamiliar person on less than her own terms.

"You can leave your undergarments on," the woman said.

The rest of Azula's clothes lay in a pile and she had begun to reach for the white fabric. She had had them on for days. They were crusty from dried sweat and blood. "Believe me, I don't." The young woman stood by, eyes on the wall ahead as the girl removed the last of her clothes and placed them in the pile. Azula leaned forward in her seat, finished, legs together, arms folded on her lap, and staring straight ahead.

"Okay," the woman said. "I'll go get you a gown. Stay right here." She turned and opened the door, Azula shifting her head slightly to watch her leave. The door closed behind her.

_Sigh._

Azula leaned back in the chair, letting her legs splay open and her arms fall to their sides. She closed their eyes. _They're helping me and they have no idea who I am. _It'd almost have been funny—the terror on their faces as they suddenly realized they were in the presence of royalty, the scramble to pay respects, to apologize for every small slight; at least that's how she always imagined it would happen—if learning her identity wouldn't actually have been a disaster.

Neither was this something she could shoot her way out of, unlike like Ba Sing Se, or New Ozai, or her enemies. If she kept running, the closer she'd get to her wound _becoming_ infected. Being so close to freedom, from Zuko, from the past; never having to look back…

… _Lu Ten slowly came forward and sat down by the fire with her…_

_ "… I remember the last thing you said to me…"_

_ "… I don't think you'd like it here very much. Take it from a dead person," he winked… _

… She didn't want to die.

She sighed again and opened her eyes, this time getting to her feet and walking a few steps forward to the middle of the room to air herself out. She still sweated, and the air was warm and stuffy like it always was inside buildings, but it was a relief finally having her clothes off for the first time in six days. She felt vulnerable in her nakedness, exposed, small, and soft—she stepped softly, the wood planks splintery beneath her feet and she pointed the fore and middle fingers of her right hand, just to be ready, and pressed them against her thigh to conceal them.

_ So, _she looked around the small room._ This is what a commoner's doctor is like. _She had only ever seen the family physician at the palace, who she had never seen much. This was a new experience. _She seems competent, and nice._

There was a quick rap on the door. Azula turned her head to look and rotated her body slightly away as the door opened. The woman came in.

"Oh! Sorry!" She apologized, seeing the patient's nude figure in the middle of the room.

Azula said nothing, just watched and stayed where she was with her hand on her hip and side facing the woman. She didn't need to respect this person; she was only the doctor's grunt.

The woman closed the door again. In her hand was a piece of folded fabric.

"Here's the gown." She handed it to her. "Just put your arms through the sleeves and I'll tie the back."

Azula reached across her body and took it and let it unfold in front of her. How was she going to get this one with one hand? Her left arm dangled uselessly, sore and in pain.

"Here, let me help." Before Azula could say anything, the young woman took hold of the left side and held it out for her. She didn't protest. She slowly slipped her left arm through the left, then her right arm with ease. The woman stepped behind her, tugged on the straps and tied them lightly. She came back around. "There."

"What are you going to do with my clothes?" Azula asked, thinking they could be used to identify her. She contemplated having them destroyed. They were ruined anyway.

"Nothing," she shrugged. "We'll just keep them here until after surgery. Ready?"

Azula took a deep breath. _She's not cutting your arm off, just 'cleaning' it, whatever that means… _Though her skin was covered, she still felt vulnerable. "Yes," she sighed.

The woman opened the door and directed her into the hall. She then opened the door to the room that the doctor had gone through and led her inside.

The room was much bigger, lined with cabinets and shelves filled with vials and other things, two windows in the back, both closed, a silvery water basin to the left, and a large wooden table in the center, two leather straps at each end, the surface stained with dark colored marks. The doctor was standing at one of the counters, back turned, tending to something. Two aids joined her, a man and a woman, one preparing a large bowl of water and rags, the other, a fire in her hand, holding in the flame- she saw it; the tray of surgical instruments, the shiny metallic blades, pointed grabbers, and, she gulped—a saw.

"You're _not_ cutting off my arm."

Her question came out as a demand. The others glanced at her and returned to what they were doing, except for the doctor; she turned around and looked at her, small knife in hand. Her clothes were different; a white smock covered her robe tied, marked with stains of dried blood.

"No," the doctor said calmly. "I have no intention."

Azula shifted her eyes around to the others. The doctor remained facing her.

"Okay!" The doctor said aloud, breaking the silence with her excited tone, and the patient's attention returning to her. "We're about to get started."

The man at the basin stood by the table and looked at the patient; the woman at the counter brought over the tray of instruments and a vial of clear liquid; and the young woman behind her walked away somewhere.

She knew enough that she was to lie on the table. Her eyes fell to the leather straps strategically placed at its corners. She grew concerned.

"You said you were a firebender?" The doctor asked.

"… Yes?" She replied suspiciously.

The young woman came walking back over.

"You'll need to put on these, then."

In her hands were four heavy leather mitts.

The leather straps, the mitts, being restrained, the white and pink gown, it came surging at once.

"No!" She reared back and drew her fist. "I won't!"

The others were alarmed, stopping what they were doing. Their eyes nervously flicked back and forth between the doctor and the threatening patient.

"Put them down, put them down!" The doctor motioned toward the aid. The young woman was frantic for a moment before placing the mitts quickly down on the counter. Azula breathed heavily and stared intensely at the woman who looked like an attendant from the asylum.

"I am _not_ putting those on," Azula said through clenched teeth.

"You aren't," the doctor said softly. "See?" She showed the mitts sitting idly on the counter. "Nothing's happening. You can put your fist down and we can talk-"

"I am _NOT _ putting those on!" Blue fire flared around her clenched fist. The aids in the room gasped, stepping back, afraid, even the one who could firebend. The doctor flinched, but stood her ground.

"Everybody, everybody! It's okay!" She called to get a hold of her people. "Rina," she said firmly.

All the terrible memories flashed before her. She would never be like that again, never.

There was distance in the girl's eyes. She had seen this before.

"Rina…" The doctor said her name again, calmly. Azula's attention slowly focused on her, fist still raised and burning. "I can you see you've had a bad experience with these," the doctor said gently. "That's alright, I understand. We're not going to hurt you. All these mitts are is precaution to protect us while we work on you. Sometimes, firebenders accidentally shoot fire when they're in pain or scared. Here-"

She walked over to where the mitts lay and took one. "Look," she said, slipping it on and off her hand effortlessly. "See? It doesn't tighten, it comes off easily." She turned her hand upside down and Azula watched the mitt slide right off into the doctor's other hand.

"Same for the feet. They can come off at any time. They're only to help you. We want to help you."

Azula was hearing her. The fire began to dim, barely, and her fist slowly lowered. She said nothing.

"We don't have to do the surgery if you don't want." The doctor spoke sincerely. "I do believe, though, that if you don't take care of your wound now, you will eventually lose your arm."

The doctor fell silent. Azula glanced at the people around her; they were all staring at her, looking nervous and unsure. The doctor remained steady and calm. Azula looked away to the floor.

_There's no way this could have been the institution. _The fire finally died. All the aids let go their breaths, and so did the doctor, silently. Azula continued to stare at the floor. _Then why did I think it was? _

"Rina?"

Her ears burned with shame. "Okay," she whispered. "Okay." She said aloud, looking up. "There's no problem."

"Alright." The doctor waited a moment, aware of the distracted, tired look that remained on the girl's face. "Are you ready?"

She took a deep breath. "Yes," she said weakly.

"Good, then lie on the table, please."

Azula looked at the man standing at the end. She turned and walked over to him and faced the table; it higher than her waist. She sat on it, and swung her legs up, declining his move to assist.

"Please lie on your stomach, and face the other way," the doctor told her.

She changed direction toward the door and lowered her front side to the hard surface. She craned her neck to keep off the many dark stains and blotches. The young woman came along side and placed a towel beneath her head. With gentle hands, she held her head and guided it down so the left side of her face rested on it. She stood close.

"I'm bringing the mitts over now," sounded the doctor's voice. She heard footsteps and the doctor appeared in front of her. "Ready?" She was holding one for her to see.

"Yes," Azula answered miserably. "Just get it over with." She shuddered and tensed as the slick leather slid across her right hand. The doctor pulled it off.

"See?" The doctor idicated how easy it was to remove. "No problem at all." She put it back on. "You try."

Azula pulled her hand out slowly, the weight of the leather mitt keeping it in place as her hand came through. She held her hand out for a second… She slid it back in.

The doctor smiled. She walked away to take her place at her patient's injured arm.

"So I don't accidentally slice your arm if you flail," the doctor began. "I need to strap your arm down, _loosely_," she stressed.

"… Okay." She felt she understood the doctor's intention.

The doctor bent the leather around her arm and demonstrated its looseness. She then took the vial of clear liquid and poured it over the wound.

"Ahh!" Azula hissed from the sting of the alcohol. She clenched her fists and squirmed. The young woman placed her hand on the patient's wrist and the other on her head. "It's okay," she soothed, softly petting her hair. "It's going to be okay."

The doctor picked up one of the sharpened blades. "This is going to hurt a lot," she warned. "Be strong. We'll help you through it."

Azula held her breath as she felt the doctor's cold hand on her shoulder and the blade touch her skin.

It was the worst pain she had ever felt.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Blood-soaked rags filled a wet bowl. She lay on the table as she did when the surgery began, her lower lip trembling now, cheeks moist with tears, her eyes fixed on the clothed abdomen of the woman who still comforted her as the needle pricked repeatedly into her skin. The doctor stitched the wound closed, made wider and longer from her work, but the patien's arm still firmly in place.

"Keep crying," the doctor said matter-of-factly. "You'll feel better when you're done."

There was no use trying to hide it anymore.

The doctor made the final stitch and tied it off. She grasped the vile of alcohol again and poured it over the crisscrossing lines of thread.

"Ah…!" Azula buried her forehead into the towel. Tears seeped from her eyes.

"Last time," the doctor assured. The doctor stepped back, letting her aid sop up the last of the blood, and wrapped a bandage around the stitched wound. "Done."

The young woman let go of her wrist and began removing the mitts, as well as the man, who had steadied her legs through the whole ordeal.

"Your wound's been thoroughly cleaned," the doctor said, wiping her hands on rag. "I don't think you'll have to worry about an infection anymore."

She was struggling to think, the pain throbbing, splitting, burning, aching to the bone. Her face was a steady grimace. Her breathing was shallow and her sweat was cold. Her eyelids were heavy.

"We better get you to bed." The doctor observed the patient's fatigue. "Aimi?"

The young woman came over and she and the doctor helped the girl sit up, while the others cleaned. Azula moaned and rested her forehead in her hand. _It hurts even worse, but—_she felt her arms weight on her shoulder—_it's still there._

The doctor took a light piece of cloth and tied a new sling for her and handed her a cup of water. "Drink," she offered.

She was parched. She took the wood cup and downed the room-temperature water.

The doctor replenished her cup. "In about a month, you'll be able to use of your arm again."

"A month?" She groaned worriedly, having had no idea how long these things took, but not expecting that!

"Yes," the doctor said. "Until then, you need to rest and let it heal. Aimi will take you to the bedding wing now."

"Come with me," the young woman said sweetly, placing a guiding hand on her back and elbow.

"Wait," Azula spun around to the doctor, stopping the woman. "What's going on?"

The doctor smiled. "You're sleeping here tonight, remember? We can take you in, it's no problem."

Azula was silent. She remembered the man's words. "Oh." _They think I'm homeless; I am. They think I have nothing; I don't. _She understood. "Thank you…"

"Nori said you needed help, so I trust you're of good character-"

"Doctor," Azula interrupted.

The woman stopped talking. Azula stared at her seriously.

"_Nobody_ can know I'm here."

The others in the room stopped what they were doing and listened.

"I'm- I'm running away, from bad people. I..." She was struggling to find the words. "I can't let them find me. Please, _please_," she begged for all of them to hear. "If _anyone_ comes looking for me,_ please_ _don't_ tell them I'm here!"

"Who?" The doctor asked curiously.

Azula gulped, blinked her eyes rapidly, looked slightly away, and appeared nervous. "Please don't make me say." She made her voice shaky. She frowned and her brow was furrowed.

There was a subtle change in the doctor's expression. Her eyes quickly glanced down at the girl's wound and back up to her face. "That's no problem, Rina." Her voice remained warm. "I understand." The same voice as when she calmed her down from the sight of the restraints. "Everybody," the doctor called her group's attention again. "Rina here is going to be our ward and as healers we are tasked with protecting the people in our care."

They all nodded their heads, to the doctor, some to each other, looking inspired.

"Yeah," the young woman said to her. "We help people like you all the time. You'll be safe here."

Azula looked around at the people who suddenly looked at her with determination and pride. _They're going to protect me…?_

"Now you can sleep easy tonight." The doctor smiled. "Now, please, I insist you got to bed."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The door opened to a dark room, long, each wall lined with a row of beds. There was coughing, quiet murmuring, and the shapes of sleeping people. A lone person stood over a far bed, lantern in hand, while a scant few lamps burned on the walls. The windows were blue with the light of evening. The young woman walked passed.

"Here you go." She folded back the sheets of an unoccupied bed several rows away from the door.

She felt uneasy about being put to bed like this, but… she was so deeply tired. Against her better judgment, she sat down on the mattress. It was lumpy, stuffed with straw, unlike the horse hair she was used to. She lay stiffly, weary of the woman standing awkwardly over her.

"Sleep well," the woman said. "If you need anything, Ning will be walking around."

Azula lifted her head as the woman walked away. She saw her meet with the other who was on rounds, say something to her, to which to which the other glanced at the new patient and nodded her head. Azula lowered her head as the young woman passed by once more and left. She returned to eyeing her surroundings.

_I'm not safe yet. _The woman with the lantern was walking slowly past the beds on the other side. _A lot of people have seen me. Zuko will eventually get word, just like those people in Hira'a knew about 'Ursa'. No one knew where I was in the forest. _Her eyes widened._ I'm in more danger here!_

Zuko coming into town with his gang, asking questions, being pointed the way, maybe even a small army behind him; these people stood no chance against the will of a Fire Lord. _She'd_ stand no chance. Her left arm was useless; lots of people had seen her. She had even fewer options now.

_Wait a minute_…! Her flood of anxiety was stemmed. _Zuko hid his identity in Hira'… He didn't use his power as Fire Lord, or tell people who 'Ursa'—mother—was…_

An incredible reality was dawning.

_He might do the same here! These people… Zuko will be the person I'm running from… They'll hide me…_

They had shown such resolve, were so easily convinced to protect her, and she had hardly needed to try. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting her head sink deeply into the softness of the pillow. At last, she didn't need to fear capture. The heaviness of sleep was falling over her. A roof lied over her head; she was lying in a soft bed; people were around, no animals, no bugs, not a single forest sound could be heard.

_ "… I think you've lost the will to fight…"_

_ "… I sent someone to help you…"_

_ "… What's so funny?" she asked, seeing him smiling and happy…_

_ "Nothing… I think everything is going alright…"_

_ "… I think everything is going to be alright…"_

The warm memories filled her. _You helped me get here, Lu Ten. I won't forget._

Zuko could be very far away by now, heading in the opposite direction if the bat was successful. She tried falling asleep, unbothered by the other people in the room.

… It wasn't long before her eyes opened again, with alarm.

_Or, maybe, Zuko will throw his weight around._

Her ordeal through the forest was over, but her escape through the city was only beginning. 

* * *

_**Coming up next in 'Avatar: The Truth', Chapter Eight – A Good Liar...  
**_


	8. Chapter Eight - A Good Liar

**Author's Hiatus**

** Dear reader,**

** I am deeply sorry for the long wait with no word on the story's status. I have had this chapter nearly complete since last year, but, due to continuing health problems, had been unable to perform the finishing work. These health problems remain unresolved and prevent me from writing. I have essentially forced myself to get this done. But don't feel guilt! Please enjoy this next chapter in Azula's journey of self-discovery as she finds her place in the world. Unfortunately, this will probably be the last updated for another long time.**

** Thank you for readership and commitment. Your comments have been helpful and what I have managed to write has gone a long way toward my writing ambitions.**

** Until next time,**

** Synfish**

Chapter Eight

A Good Liar

The hospital had come alive; workers walked to and fro, tending to patients, carrying trays of food, water and medical items, helping those who could stand dress, and those who were bed ridden to eat. Rays of gold morning light shone through the rows of square windows. Amidst the flurry of activity, Azula was sound asleep.

One of the hospital workers was engaged in conversation with another. They finished and one of them walked over to the sleeping patient. He stood at her bedside. He tapped her on the shoulder.

Her eyes opened. She sat straight up, urged by the bright light and sounds. The man pulled his hand away. She felt around her body, moved her legs, and scanned the now lit, active room full of unfamiliar people.

"Good morning." A masculine voice sounded from beside her. She jerked around and reared back at the sight of a man looking straight from the institution standing beside her, dressed in a white and pink-banded robe. She blinked and her heart pounded. He smiled.

"Sorry to wake you," he said nicely.

Memories of the doctor from last night returned. Pain began to surge from her damaged arm. She groaned, eyes squeezing shut as she rode a wave of pain.

_It's still the hospital, nothing's changed._

The man frowned. "I can see you're having considerable pain." His voice was sympathetic.

It had been _days_ _straight_ of this pain and it was even worse.

"Who are you?" She breathed out with difficulty, forcing her eyes open.

He was surprised by her directness, but answered happily. "I'm Dr. Ken, and you must be…" He glanced down at a piece of parchment with writing he was holding. "Rina?"

She took shaky, deep breaths and her face was a grimace. "Yes."

"Laying down will help," he suggested.

She remained upright and stiff. "Where's Doctor," she began, picturing the woman and the operating room from last night. "Uh…"

"Izumi?" He finished for her.

She stopped trying to remember.

"You saw her last night. She'll be here this evening. I'm your resident Doctor during the day."

She sighed silently. _Just another doctor…_

The man sat softly on the edge of her bed and looked at her. "I understand you came in last night with a very serious injury."

She let out a deep, slow breath through her nose. …_The same people who said they'd help me._

"Yes," she craned her neck to stare at him.

"Alright," he turned his attention to the piece of paper. He wore glasses, his face and hands were tanned, and his short, black hair that had gray streaks through it. "It says here: 'patient came in with deep laceration on upper left arm, claims to have been caused by a tiger-," She could see his eyebrow rise. "'I, Dr. Izumi," he continued. "Operated on the wound to prevent infection…'" His eyes ran silently over a long stretch of words. "'… Patient needs shelter and prolonged care.'"

"Doctor..."

He looked up from the paper, eyes peering over the frames of his glasses.

"I need help. I have no place to stay and I'm trying to run away from bad people. They can't know I'm here." Here was another she needed to be sure was fooled. She replayed the helpless demeanor from last night.

"I understand." He nodded his head, lowering his own voice. "I've been informed. Don't worry; you're not going to be kicked out. As you can see," he motioned with his hand. "There are plenty of open beds. Even if there weren't…" He shook his head. "Don't worry. My staff will take care of you."

She felt little assurance of safety from his words.

"In the meantime," he continued. "You've just been operated on, so in terms of your injury, the worst is behind you. Just take it easy now and try to bare the pain. In a few days, it'll start to go away-"

"Doctor," she said again, but in an impatient tone. "What if the people I'm hiding from force their way in?"

He appeared shaken. "Hopefully they don't." She could tell he was unsure. He thought about it for a short time longer. "We'll hide you some place in the building. Don't worry."

She was taken back slightly by his answer. She hadn't thought of that. Would it work?

"Well, I've got more patients to see." He patted the bed, standing up. "Have a good day," he looked at the paper again. "Rina. He said again quietly to remind himself. "If you need anything, just ask one of the workers. One should be with you shortly to help you bathe and change your bandage." He got up and hung the piece of paper on the bed frame. "I'll check back with you again later."

She watched him walk away to another patient, this one bed ridden. Across the room, one of the busy hospital workers turned their attention to her and headed straight over.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Her hair lied wet down her back, a few beads of water still dripping from the ends. She sat on the bed, knees pulled to her chest, an empty tray and bowl on the floor next to her. The hospital room had settled, but people still came and went through the door, past the hallway in front of her.

_So this is what my great escape has come to, stuck here, nowhere to go, no plan ahead._

The forest was only a day behind and yet she could still feel it; the nearness to Hira'a, the fear of Zuko closing in, danger lurking in every sound or shadow.

The door to the room opened. She turned her head. A woman stood in the doorway, not recognizable as one of the hospital workers. Her attention turned her way, but to something behind her. She turned her head discreetly as the woman walked by, peering out the corner of her eye to watch as the woman stopped at a nearby bed, sat on its edge, and reached with open arms toward a girl lying low beneath the covers, who returned the embrace. Azula shifted her eyes away.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

She stood at one of the windows, watching the street through the space between the hospital building and the next. Evening was falling. It wasn't as dark as when she had arrived yesterday and there were more people walking the street. She could only see one side of building, bt least she could view half the people coming toward her.

She heard footsteps outside the room. The door to the wing swung open and through it came the doctor from last night, joined by an aid, discussing something intently, while the doctor listened closely. Azula watched the two as they approached, turning her body away from the window as they passed. The doctor shot her a quick, unassuming look as she listened to her assistant's report. Azula slowly returned to her bed and sat down, watching the woman robed in white and pink make rounds around the other patients, until she finally made her way over to her.

"Hello, Rina." The doctor sat on the empty bed across from her. "How have you been? How's the arm?" She had a warm smile on her face.

"Okay," Azula said quietly to the familiar doctor. "It hurts, a lot."

"It will," the doctor said. "Tomorrow it'll begin to feel just a little better. How's the hospital staff been treating you?" She grinned. "You like the food?"

She had eaten a bowl of fish flavored broth, with noodles and vegetables; the hospital workers had mostly left her alone, every now and then coming by to check on her.

"Fine," she answered to both.

"Good." The doctor was pleased, and silently relieved, to see the girl's calm demeanor was holding. Her display of off-colored fire had been bizarre and terrifying; though it wouldn't have been the first time she had had a flaming fist directed at her.

"So," the doctor's tone shifted. "Last night you came in with Nori, who is a friend of mine and whose family I've been taking care of for years. He said you needed a place to stay and that you were destitute."

"… Yes?" She looked at the doctor, her right hand lightly grasping the edge of the mattress.

"I didn't ask about it last night," the doctor raised her hand expressively. "Because it didn't matter, but, moving _forward_," she stressed and stared a little bit harder into the girl's eyes. "The hospital has to be careful about who we taken in. It has happened before that people have come to us and turned out not to be… what they seemed."

Azula's face froze subtly, realizing the doctor's shrewd suspicion. She breathed deeply and silently. She cocked her head slightly and looked at the doctor curiously. "You think I'm..." She paused, letting her face show confusion. "A criminal?" Images of her face plastered on posters all around the city played in her head.

"No," the doctor shook her head. "I just want you to understand my need to be _careful_. If I'm going to help you-, if I'm going to _personally_ help," she made clear. "I need to know who you are." She smiled and fell silent.

_She doesn't trust me._ Her face remained neutral. She turned her down and her eyes fell away from the doctor. _I'm helpless, remember. That's how they need to see me. _She took a deep breath and sighed loudly. "I'm running away home… from my family."

The doctor listened.

"I'm from a small town up the river," she began her concocted story. "Kind of up the river. Do you need to know the name?" She looked up at the doctor.

The doctor shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

Azula relaxed slightly; she didn't know the river's name. Her story resumed. "… My parents wanted me to get married, and start having a family, but I didn't want to. I _really_ don't want to." She began to picture it. "I saw what it was like for my mom and other women, and birth-!" She let her mouth fall open and the words hang, shaking her head. "I could _die!_ And for what? Nothing!" She looked at the doctor. "I've got my whole life ahead of me. Besides…" she lowered her voice and shifted her eyes away. "I don't want to marry just some man."

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Okay." The doctor fell quiet again.

Azula folded her arms across her stomach and hunched over. "I got into a big fight with them, especially my dad. They tried introducing me to a man and his family, and I wouldn't have it. I could tell they were trying-," She made herself appear choked up and she blinked her eyes. "I didn't feel welcome anymore after that…"

Her face grew dark.

"Of course, my _brothers_ were useless," she said resentfully, wiping her dry eyes. "They get to do whatever they want, they don't have to get married, but no, I'm the daughter who has to do what she's told or else I'll be _disrespectful_," she made the word roll off her tongue in a hiss. "Well, I don't care, not when I know just over the hills there's a whole world for me."

"So you came here?"

She glanced at the doctor. "Yes. I had always known there was a city nearby, with stone streets that never turned to mud, huge buildings like trees, where people didn't just farm and I could do anything I wanted, like be a civil soldier."

The doctor raised an eyebrow.

"I can fight and I know women here do that, or maybe I can even dive for pearls in the ocean; something _exciting!_"

The doctor smiled. "You know about that," hearing the young woman's reference to a seafaring community outside the bay on a small island, where the women fish and the men travel to sell the catch.

"Yes." Azula feigned a sheepish smile. "I heard stories about the city from people in my town who had traveled there. It wasn't often, but I knew I wanted to go." She frowned. "Then I finally had a reason to. If it wasn't for the coal mine, I don't think I would've made it…"

"The coal mine," the doctor repeated, surprise in her voice. "That's quite a distance from here, and on the edge of the Forgetful Valley. You made it through?"

Azula sensed the doctor's confusion and recalled the villagers' warnings about the dangers of the valley. She sharpened her tale. "Yes," she answered to the doctor's disbelief. "I know the stories and I didn't believe any of them. I still don't. I followed a river outside my town that I thought would take me here. I figured I'd have water and something to follow, but I guess the map I looked at was off."

"That's… quite bold, and the tiger?"

She began to feel she was walking a precipice. "The first night," she blurted out. "On my way to the river. I killed it with my fire."

The doctor was silent again and appeared to be in thought.

_What is she thinking; that no one would have made it? I did have help? That it's unexplainable._

"… I suppose that as word grows of the opportunities in the city, more people will go to extremes to get here," the doctor thought aloud, eyes off the side. "You're from the country?" She turned back to her.

"Yes." Her answer was straightforward, knowing what the doctor meant; unaware that somebody actually in her position might not have referred to their home that way.

"The countryside can be slow to take on new ways. And these, 'bad people', you mentioned last night? I assume you meant your family?"

She hadn't considered that, only having said it to mask her real enemies. "Or, anybody they've sent to find me. What am I supposed to do if they come? Fight them!? I can…!"

The doctor grew worried of the violence in her voice. "I don't think there's much they _can_ do. That doesn't really happen anymore." She pictured what the young woman feared.

She wasn't sure what the doctor was referring to; of course bounty hunters existed, but she didn't argue. What she had to worry about was Zuko and all of the powers he had to find her. "I hope not, but I still don't want them to find me."

"And they won't," the doctor said confidently. A brief moment of silence followed. "Rina, the doctor's voice was soft. "Has your family ever hurt you?"

Azula was puzzled "What do you mean?"

"Has your family done anything that makes you afraid to live with them?"

Azula searched for what to say. Her eyes lowered and her face fell flat. She thought of Mai and Ty Lee—Ty Lee ran away from her parents—her mother and her silent dislike of her, and her father—his temper toward Zuko—but never did she feel afraid, except that one time, during the Comet, when he ordered her to stay in the Capital…

"You don't have to answer that."

Azula tilted her head up and she observed the doctor's face.

"Rina", the doctor said. "I know exactly what you're talking about." A wave of relief and surprise washed through her; she didn't even say anything. The doctor continued. "More than a few times women have ended up here saying the same things you have." She paused for a moment. "I think you've made the right choice," she stared directly into her eyes. "I think you'll find a lot of people here who feel the same way you do. You may have to _assert _yourself more, with all the men coming back from the war, but you seem smart, and determined. I think you'll do fine. Things might not be _quite_ as exciting as you expected-," she trailed off and shook her head slightly, clearing away the thought. "I think you'll do fine," she repeated, warmer than before. "Your arm just has to get better first." She smiled and Azula stared neutrally back, her breathing stiff and butterflies in her stomach as she waited for the next part of her ruse, or for it to end. Her mind was drawing blank. She waited for the doctor to speak. Hopefully she would.

"I'll help you get on your feet," the doctor smiled warmly. "I've done it many times before."

She let out a deep breath that she was sure the doctor could hear. "Thank you," she said automatically.

"Now," she leaned in closer and her voice lowered. "Between one woman and another, as a mother myself, it's not so bad having children. It's a lot of work, as you know, and it helps to have a good husband. Look at me," she said brightly, opening her heads expressively. "I've been a doctor for almost my whole life and have two grown children. I know your fear, though. I just wouldn't close yourself off from the idea forever. You're young, though; you don't have to worry about it for a while."

She didn't pay much attention to the doctor's "advice"; it was a subject she didn't care to discuss, but from the doctor's voice, she could hear the suspicion was fading. The doctor got to her feet. "Keep resting, and don't worry; I'll work on setting you up with someone who can take you in. It likely won't be paid, just room and board. I assume you don't have any money?"

_Money… _She couldn't remember ever handling coins. "No." _Should I have?_

"No problem." The doctor was beginning to leave.

"Doctor," she called. The woman stopped and waited. "What if your people are bribed?"

The doctor stared firmly into her eyes. "That will _not_ happen."

There was force in her words. "Okay." She felt enough had been said. The doctor continued to look at her, as if waiting. "… Thank you." She smiled.

The doctor smiled back. "I'll be here for the next six hours. You'll probably be asleep when I leave. Have a good evening, Rina. Oh! And welcome to Kaoshiung." The doctor bowed.

Azula watched her walk away and exit the room, followed by the same aid from earlier. She took a quick look around, observing the other staff occupied in their work, far less busy than in the morning. She let out a deep sigh. Her shoulders slumped and her body loosened.

_I fooled her. _She recounted the doctor's voice, her words, her face, and her initial suspicions that melted away. _And not a word of it was true._

She felt deeply satisfied. A subtle smirk drew across her limps. She tilted her chin down to hide it. She couldn't count how many books she recalled in winding that tale, but what of those stories—they must have come from somewhere…?

Her mind didn't linger. She closed her eyes lay back on the bed, spreading her free arm wide and letting her head sink straw-filled pillow. She sighed.

_ I'm such a good liar._

That doctor had been the most suspicious, and seemed to wield power over this place. She tried to enjoy the peace then her arm began to throb harder. She winced.

_I'm stuck in this place, but… I think I can rely on them. It seems they won't give me up easily if Zuko comes anonymously…_

She opened her eyes; she still had one more visitor to expect this evening.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Empty meal trays were being carried away by the hospital's staff and patients were being helped to bed; the light outside was darkening and she felt a certain moment was approaching. As one of the hospital workers passed through the door on her way out, in the doorway appeared the man from yesterday who had brought her here. He turned his head scanning the room slowly—their eyes met. He smiled softly. She raised the corners of her mouth in return. He started walking her way.

"Good evening, Rina." He lifted his hand in greeting, stopping in the aisle between her bed and the next. "Good to see you again. How've you been?"

"Fine." She smiled weakly. "I didn't lose my arm."

"Yeah?" His face lit up as his eyes fell to her sling that housed a full arm. He beamed. "That's great! Wow! I knew Dr. Izumi could help. She really is something. Although I think Chen back at the mine might be a little disappointed," he chuckled.

"How terrible," she rolled her eyes, happily remembering the physician's dark banter.

The man observed her smirk and brighter eyes. "It's good to see you smiling."

She straightened her lips and grew calm. He was a familiar face, but she needed to be alert to his possible suspicion.

"Hey, don't worry, it looks good on you!" He joked in a muted laugh in response to her sudden shyness. "You were very dark yesterday. I'm glad you're doing better."

She heard only words. _These people could still turn me in. _"I am too," she gave a fake smile and stared at him.

"So…" He placed one hand in a pocket and remained standing "Are they letting you stay here?"

_And I'll use them as much as I can. _She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Yes. Dr. Izumi is letting me stay here until my arm heals, and she's going to help me get started in the city, but, I don't know how yet."

_'Get started in the city', what does that even mean—am I living here?_

He nodded. "I'd listen to her. She's done this kind of thing before; charity and helping people get on their feet. My wife and I would be willing to take you in, but I'd follow Izumi's lead. She knows the right people and it'd probably be better for you. Actually-,"

He reached into his breast pocket, fishing for something. He pulled out a little folded piece of thick paper and a pointed charcoal writing piece. "When things have gotten steady for you," he scribbled on the paper. "You're welcome to come by." He tore off a strip and handed it to her. She took it carefully and inspected its contents.

_Nori Nakamori_

_ 12 Donghua St_

_ Zuoying, Kaohsiung_

She was perplexed by the peculiar arrangement of the words and numbers. "What's this?"

"Our home's address."

"Oh." She looked at it further. "Right..." She had never seen such a thing. She didn't ask to mask her ignorance.

"Don't feel like you're intruding." He smiled warmly down at her as her head was turned down toward the note. "My wife and I would be happy to have you around."

She looked at the note a little further—she felt she had the contents memorized. With no place for it, she settled it on her lap.

"Nori," she said his name for the first time. "You brought me to a hospital, as I asked, and I haven't asked for anything more." She started into his eyes. "Why are you still helping me?"

"Oh," he frowned. "Well…" He paused, his eyes drifting away for a moment as he thought. He shrugged his shoulders. "Because it's easy; it's the right thing to do."

She watched him for any signs that he was hiding his true motives.

"… In all of my years the mine," he began in a manner that resembled telling a story. "Nothing like this has ever happened: someone appearing out of the wilderness, coming tous in need. With the Forgetful Valley being so near and you having passed through it, _alive_," he stressed the last part in a hushed down, while her stomach tightened hearing again how her survival was so unusual. "I wondered if, maybe, that you finding us, was actually the work of… of a _spirit._"

Her eyes widened. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Testing us," he added. "For what I don't know," he said mysteriously. "But with all the changes going on in the country right now, you getting here, it could be a sign…" He trailed off.

She thought back to her encounters with the spirits in the forest—the bat, the blue flowers, her cousin's ghost. "That's… very interesting." She shrugged innocently and smiled cutely." All I did was follow the river. I didn't see any spirits."

"Oh, don't mind me, Rina," he chuckled. "That's just what I thought when you showed up. Even if none of that were true," he smiled. "You're worth helping. My wife and I are happy to help."

She tilted her head"Well then." She found herself feeling little suspicion and pleased by his words. "Thank you."

"So, do you I need to get anything for you? I see they've got you some, uh-." He looked over the gown she had on. "Some form of clothes."

It was flimsy and oversized and she hoped it wasn't at all permanent. Her wrecked clothes lied under the bed, wrapped together and unusable if not for the filth and damage, but also for the suspicion they may bring, if that other man's comments at the mine were any indication.

"Yes, but I would prefer to choose them myself."

"Okay." He nodded his head. "When you're well enough, that can be done."

"And I have a question; at the mine today, was anybody come by asking about me?"

She saw him turn subtly uncomfortable. "No, no one came, but…" He trailed off, thinking of things he didn't want to share. "Just people at the mine, wondering about you."

She tensed. _He said thousands of people are there! _She sighed loudly and buried her face into her palm. _Random people in Hira'a knew about mother and she left years ago._

"I wouldn't worry. Most of them don't live in the city."

She raised her head and stared grimly at the far wall.

The man frowned. "Alright…" He looked her over, preparing to leave. "I should probably get going. You look tired."

She sensed she had been ignoring him for too long. She straightened up and took a deep breath, and made herself look more alive. "Yes," she sighed. Her eyelids were indeed heavy. All day she had been bracing against the aching pain in her wound.

"You sure you having everything you need?" He asked again.

"Yes, I'm fine for now," she said in the warmest way she could. She looked up at him. Her lips curled. "Thank you, though. I need all the help I can get."

He appeared happy. "Okay, then. I'll leave you to Dr. Izumi. I'll try to stop by again. Have a good evening, Rina. I'm glad you're doing well." He bowed.

She did not. "Thank you, Nori."

The man turned and walked away. Once gone, her head returned forward and her smile fell. She let out a long breath she felt she had been holding the entire time.

_Another one convinced. _Her ruse, so far, continued. _Maybe he'll hide me, if this place fails. _He had been eager to help her from the start, and he seemed to implicitly trust her, for mystical reasons apparently. She'd have to find a way to take advantage of that.

She didn't get too comfortable. She pocketed the note in one of the small pouches sewn into the gown. He was just another uncertainty in an otherwise certain fate.

She sighed again, feeling the all too familiar queasiness of worry building in her stomach.

_"… Take her down…"_

_ "… She's too dangerous…"_

Her eyes tightened to a furious glare and hatred burned; faced with Zuko's gang at the spirit pond, the lot of them, called to action by their pack leader. She shivered with rage recalling the contempt dripping in Zuko's voice, as if she were some _inferior thing_ to be _stamped out!_ She would have showed them! She had been ready to block Zuko's fire, to leap off the Avatar's earth bending she knew was coming, when behind her, unannounced, the shimmering ball of water rose behind her, drawn up by the water peasant, like before.

Her moment of confidence deflated. She slumped, knowing clearly that defeat would have followed. Somewhere out there, right now, Zuko and the Avatar were searching for her.

_I can't fight them. _She imagined kicking out fire and sweeping with her right; all she could manage in her current state.

_… I can't win,_ she clarified.

It was hard to remember what it felt like to win a fight; being paralyzed by Ty Lee in the prison, hands and feet restrained in the blink of an eye in the palace grounds, being wrapped in ice while distracted, all of her _embarrassments_ against her brother in Hira'a, the agni kai, the time in the institution.

She rested her forehead in her hand. She stared at the blank sheets.

_I can only hide, disappear into these people, look like one of them. Zuko won't know where to look. No one will._

She closed her eyes; in her head, she saw the hospital burning around her, set aflame by her own will, if the worst were to come.

"No," she whispered, shaking her head and hearing her cousin's words telling her the same. "Don't do that."

She opened her eyes to the steadily darkening room. The hospital workers were lighting lamps, pinching the wicks with their fingers and closing the glass covers. Patients were coughing, talking, and there were other noises of sickness.

She could only wait, as a fixed target, for her arm to heal, for the doctor's intentions reveal themselves, for Zuko to find her. Her head turned; a hospital worker was approaching. Her robe was pink and white, like the doctor, but it wasn't her. She walked past, turning to give the watching patient a bright smile as she continued on. Azula didn't smile. Her eyes, narrow, followed asylum-looking woman until she disappeared through the door.

Wait here, in this place that was reminding her of the asylum.


End file.
